City of Evil is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, released on June 6, 2005,[5] through Warner Bros. and Hopeless Records.

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".

[6] The album contains some of Avenged Sevenfold's most popular and famous songs, including "Bat Country", which is arguably their most successful to date, being one of their two singles certified gold by the RIAA.

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 2020.

"Burn It Down", "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.

"Blinded in Chains" was featured in the video game Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and is the promo of the Japanese-Canadian anime Bakugan Battle Brawlers on TV3.

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.

[19] The album is partially influenced by European power metal bands such as Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica and Helloween, as well as Children of Bodom.

[12][21] 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.

However, 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.

On June 2, 2005, the band released a promotional video for "Burn It Down",[30] which was done in the same way as "Unholy Confessions" from Waking the Fallen (live footage with dubbed music).

[39] 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".

[13] The British version of the German 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?".

It also appeared in Saints Row 2,[46] Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, Rocksmith 2014, and both in the movie Big Momma's House 2 and the TV show Bones, respectively.

"Blinded in Chains" is featured in Need For Speed: Most Wanted[47] where it is the theme song for Blacklist member #14 Vince "Taz" Killic.