After toughing it out in the indie-underground trenches for a pair of albums, California-based metalcore band Avenged Sevenfold signed to Warner Brothers and released their major label debut, CITY OF EVIL , in 2005. The band's mix of muscular riffage and metallic intensity remained intact after their jump to the big leagues; however, they scaled back a bit on the scorched-earth vocal stylings found on earlier records, upped the classic metal histrionics, and in the process found a much larger audience.