City of Evil is the third studio album by American rock band Avenged Sevenfold released on June 6, 2005^[1] by Warner Bros. Records. Co-produced by Andrew Murdock, City of Evil contains a more hard rock and classic heavy metal sound than Avenged Sevenfold's previous two albums, which showcased a predominantly metalcore sound. The album is also notable for the absence of screaming vocals. M. Shadows worked for months before the album's release with vocal coach Ron Anderson, whose clients have included Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, to achieve a sound that had "grit while still having the tone".

The album contains some of Avenged Sevenfold's most popular and famous songs, including "Bat Country", "Beast and the Harlot", "Burn it Down", and "Seize the Day", all four of which were released as singles between June 2005 and July 2006. City of Evil was very successful after its release, debuting at #30 on the Billboard 200 chart and certified as a platinum record by the Recording Industry Association of America in August 2009. It went on to sell over 1,500,000 copies in the United States, and 2,500,000 total worldwide, making it the best-selling album out of Avenged Sevenfold's discography as of 2010. Also, it is the band's longest studio effort, at 72:52 minutes.

"Betrayed" is a song written for the death of the lead guitarist of Pantera, Dimebag Darrell killed in a show by a fan in 2004.

"Bat Country", "Beast and the Harlot" and "Seize the Day", were also released as music videos, directed by Marc Klasfeld, Tony Petrossian, and Wayne Isham, respectively. The Rev performs backing vocals on the tracks "Bat Country", "Strength of the World", and "M.I.A."

The album title is derived from a lyric in the song, "Beast and the Harlot".

History[link]

Previously, Avenged Sevenfold had written and released two albums, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet in 2001 and Waking the Fallen in 2003, under the Hopeless Records label.^[2] Although neither album was a smash hit, the latter has been certified gold by the RIAA. Waking the Fallen attracted several major record labels to the band, and eventually they signed with Warner Bros. Records after consideration of several others.^[3]

Musical changes[link]

When they began to write the album, Avenged Sevenfold turned to their influences for a change in style. Realizing that none of their favorite bands were as heavy or extreme as them, they decided to change from metalcore to a more classic hard rock/heavy metal sound with few metalcore influences. "When we started working on this record, we said, 'You know what? None of our favorite bands are super extreme, they just write really good melodic songs that are still heavy," said singer M. Shadows in an interview.^[2]

M. Shadows' vocal changes[link]

Shadows turned to Ron Anderson, a vocal coach that had previously worked with Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden.^[4] Shadows was specifically looking to add a more gritty, raspy tone to his voice and worked with Anderson for several months on this before City of Evil was recorded.^[4]

"Ron taught me how to have that grit to my voice while still having the tone. He brought all of that to the table and he brought that technique to my voice. I’ve worked with him for about a year and a half now, but I worked with him for nine months before the record," said Shadows, "I told him that I want my voice to sound different from everybody else, but I wanted those characteristics in my voice...It was one of those things that we just wanted to go all the way with it."^[4]

After the release of the album rumors spread that Shadows had lost his ability to scream due to throat surgery he had needed after Warped Tour 2003.^[5] Producer Andrew Murdock put down these rumors by saying "When I met the band after Sounding the Seventh Trumpet...Matt handed me the CD, and he said to me, 'This record's screaming. The record we want to make...is going to be half-screaming and half-singing. I don't want to scream anymore...the record after that is going to be all singing.'"^[6]

Videography[link]

City of Evil features most of the songs that Avenged Sevenfold has made videos for. On May 4, 2005, they released a promotional video for "Burn It Down", which was done in the same way as "Unholy Confessions" from Waking the Fallen (live footage with dubbed music). On July 28, 2005, their first professional video for a song on the album, "Bat Country", was released. It was directed by Marc Klasfeld. On February 6, 2006, "Beast and the Harlot" was released. This was a few weeks after it had been leaked on YouTube. It was directed by Tony Petrossian. Most recently, on June 30, 2006, the video for "Seize the Day" was released on Avenged Sevenfold's MySpace. The video was directed by Wayne Isham.

Reception[link]

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[7]
Blender	[8]
IGN	7.9/10[9]
Kerrang!	[citation needed]
Metal Hammer	8/10 Issue 141, July 2005
Punknews.org	[10]
Rolling Stone	[11]
Sputnikmusic	4.5/5[12]

The album debuted at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 selling over 30,000 copies.^[13][14] Rolling Stone praised the guitar work, giving the album three out of a possible five stars.^[11] Johnny Loftus of Allmusic rated the album three-and-a-half stars out of five and commented "...Avenged Sevenfold gets all the pieces right, and sound like they're having more fun here than in the scattershot approach of the first couple records".^[7] British magazine Metal Hammer gave the album an eight out of ten rating with Katie Parsons concluding "They have done it their way, they're having fun and who the hell can blame them?".

In addition, "Bat Country" was one of the breakout singles of 2005, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, No. 6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks, and No. 1 on MTV's Total Request Live.^[15] The album was ranked No. 63 on Guitar World magazine's "100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All Time". Additionally, the band won Best New Artist at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, beating out Rihanna, Panic! at the Disco, James Blunt, Angels & Airwaves and Chris Brown.^[16][17]

Track listing[link]

All songs written by Avenged Sevenfold except where noted.

Personnel[link]

References[link]

• Avenged Sevenfold (July 17, 2007). All Excess (DVD). Warner Bros., Adam Cook & Core Entertainment, Inc. 

Citations[link]

Mike Matusow
Mike Matusow at the 2008 World Series of Poker
Nickname(s)	The Mouth
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada
Born	(1968-04-30) April 30, 1968 (age 44)
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	3
Final table(s)	13
Money finish(es)	32
Highest ITM Main Event finish	6th, 2001
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	5
Money finish(es)	10
Information accurate as of 28 February 2012.

Michael Matusow (born April 30, 1968 in Los Angeles, California) is an American professional poker player, residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "The Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table. He is also known for sometimes ruining hours or days of good play with a single spectacular misjudgment, (known as a "Mike Matusow Blow-up" or "Mike Matusow Meltdown").^[1][2][3]

Matusow began playing poker seriously in the early 1990s, first while working as a poker dealer, then as a professional player.^[4] His successes include being a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner,^[5][6][7] and the winner of the 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions.^[8]

Early years[link]

Matusow's first experience of poker was playing video poker in the Maxim Casino at the age of 18, which he played regularly, to the extent that he suffered from repetitive strain injury in his shoulders and arms. He occasionally stole money from his mother's purse and at one point attended Gamblers Anonymous meetings. Matusow was taught Texas hold 'em in 1989 by a rounder named Steve Samaroff.^[9]

World Series of Poker[link]

At the 1998 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Matusow paid part of Scotty Nguyen's entrance fee into a satellite event for the $10,000 no limit Texas hold 'em main event. Nguyen went on to win, and gave $333,333 to Matusow in return for his partial stake.^[9][10] In 1999, Matusow won his first WSOP bracelet, winning the $3,500 No Limit Hold'em event defeating Alex Brenes heads-up to win the title.

In 2001, he finished 6th place in the WSOP $10,000 no limit Hold 'em main event. Matusow says that the decisive hand was when he was bluffed by eventual champion Juan Carlos Mortensen, but did not trust his instincts to call.^[9][11]

At the 2002 WSOP, Matusow won his second bracelet by winning the $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better event. He defeated his friend and fellow professional poker player Daniel Negreanu to win the tournament.

In the 2005 WSOP, Matusow finished 9th out of 5,619 players in the main event, winning $1,000,000.^[12] Several months later, he won the WSOP Tournament of Champions in a heads-up battle against Hoyt Corkins, earning another $1,000,000 in the process, making him the first player to win two million dollar prizes in the same year. He also placed third in the Tournament of Champions the following year, winning $250,000.^[8][13]

At the 2008 WSOP, Matusow won a third bracelet in the $5000 No Limit 2–7 Draw with rebuys event defeating Jeff Lisandro heads up for the $537,862 first prize.^[7] Later in the same year he finished 30th out of 6,844 players in the Main Event, making yet another deep run in the Main Event.

World Series of Poker Bracelets[link]

Other poker events[link]

In October 2004, Matusow made his first World Poker Tour (WPT) final table at the UltimateBet Aruba Classic, earning $250,000 for 3rd place.^[14] In 2006, he finished runner-up to Tony G in the WPT Bad Boys of Poker II in heads-up play.^[15] Matusow also appeared in Poker Superstars III, where he made it to the Elite Eight. In the winner-take-all championship match, Matusow beat seven other players to win $500,000. He also appeared in the second, third, fourth and sixth season of High Stakes Poker.^[16][17] In September 2006, Mike made his debut on the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona; however, he was eliminated on the first day. In early 2007, Matusow appeared on two episodes of Poker After Dark where he finished 3rd and 2nd respectively. He plays online poker under the following aliases: "dill pickle" (UltimateBet); "mrpokejoke" (PokerStars); and "Mike Matusow" (Full Tilt Poker, where he is also a member of "Team Full Tilt").^[1][4]

In July 2007, Matusow won $671,320 after coming in second place at the World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup III Championship after online pro Kevin Saul defeated him during heads-up play.^[18] On November 11, 2008 at the World Poker Tour Foxwoods World Poker Finals, Matusow made another WPT final table, He was eliminated after his A♠ J♥ didn't improve against Jonathan Little's hand of 9♥ 9♠, he finished in 6th place, earning $124,048.

As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,400,000.^[19] $3,140,713 of his winnings have come at the WSOP.^[20]

Personal life[link]

Matusow is both loved and disliked by many poker fans. At the 2007 WSOP Main Event final table, Tournament Director Jack Effel asked the audience to recognize one of Effel's "favorite" players. The fans cheered and booed.^[21] Matusow has had several personal problems. He has battled drug issues, including a six-month stint in jail in 2004 and 2005 after being caught providing ecstasy and prescription painkillers to an undercover police officer who pretended to befriend Matusow and gained his trust. After several months of an official Las Vegas Metro Police "Sting Operation", Matusow was arrested and charged with 6 category A Felonies, all drug related. ^[22] A Plea deal was later reached where Matusow was incarcerated in The Clark County Dentention Center for 6 months. ^[23][24]

He has also dealt with being overweight, detailed on ESPN's broadcast of the 2007 WSOP. During that tournament, Mike made a $100,000 bet with Ted Forrest that he could get down to 181 pounds by June 3, 2008. Mike won the bet on June 3, weighing in at 179 pounds.^[25] Matusow resides in a 3,700-square-foot (340 m²) home in Henderson (with a cathedral ceiling) and bought a $90,000 BMW 645 CI cabriolet from a $750,000 winning session at online poker.^[9] He often wears a gold chain with the Hebrew symbol 'chai' around his neck.^[9] Additionally, Matusow hosted Card Player's poker radio show/podcast, the Circuit, before being replaced by Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok.^[26] He was also the host of Card Player's now defunct online video segment, "The Mouthpiece." In one particular episode, Mike discussed the controversial Ultimatebet.com superuser cheating scandal, as well seeking legal action as a victim of the scandal against the main perpetrator, former World Series of Poker Champion Russ Hamilton.^[27]

In 2009 Mike Matusow signed a contract with Deepstacks.com to become the Dean of Deepstacks University, an interactive poker training site.

Matusow wrote an autobiography entitled Check Raising the Devil that was released May 12, 2009.^[28]

Matusow currently does a Poker online Live show entitled, "Mike The Mouth Live" at scottmatusow.com/radio Each Thursday at 3 P.M Pacific Time

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Official blog
• World Poker Tour profile