There's a scene in Avenged Sevenfold's "All Excess" DVD where producer Mudrock talks about reports that frontman M. Shadows decided to sing on the group's last album City of Evil because years of screaming had injured his vocal chords, rendering him unable to howl. While the origins of the tale came from Shadows himself, Mudrock claims it's just not true.
Before Avenged entered the studio with him to record their second album, 2003's Waking the Fallen, Shadows told Mudrock he was tired of screaming, but that he wanted the Waking record to be half screamed, half sung. Then, for the follow-up, he wanted only to sing. So, claims Mudrock, Shadows knew what direction he wanted to take Avenged two years before the band started working on 2005's City of Evil.
That's pretty much how Avenged Sevenfold roll. They may act like drunk, retarded juvenile delinquents who were lucky to ever land a gig let alone a record deal, but behind the scenes, Avenged are meticulous forward-thinking and extremely serious about their music. From the look of "All Excess," it looks like the band also knew exactly what it wanted to present on its DVD two years before it came together.
The disc features an hour-long documentary packed with behind-the-scenes footage that's pretty forthright about the drunken revelry, the tomfoolery and the sometimes mean-spirited nature of the band and their crew. At one point, the members talk about picking on bassist Johnny Christ when he first joined and beating him up for the hell of it.
In another scene, someone makes a sandwich out of bread and human excremement and puts it on the restaurant table of the opening band. But the DVD also documents the group's professionalism with revealing interviews, and reveals their rigid work ethic both on and off the road. Still, fans of Pantera's "Vulgar Videos," won't be disappointed because when the work day is done, Avenged like to throw down and whenever drummer the Rev throws a beer in his own face, frontman M. Shadows chugs Jagermeister or Christ pretends to mount his bandmates, they make sure there's a video camera to document the stupidity.
Aside from the documentary, "All Excess" includes four of the band's videos and a four-song live set as well as outtakes that exhibit even more shenanigans. The only real oversight is that there's not nearly enough live footage, so we did some digging and found this ripping 35-minute set from the 2006 Grasspop Festival in Belgium. Enjoy.
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