Avenged Sevenfold

When they formed at the tail end of the '90s, Avenged Sevenfold were still in high school, which got us thinking — how did they go from the demon-spawn delivery of their debut, 2001's Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, to such welcome detours as the country-fried Americana of "Dear God" and the chart-bound thrash of "Critical Acclaim"? Easy — they've always been that way. The rockers from Southern California surf town Huntington Beach have diversity tattoo'd onto their DNA. Trumpet's follow-up, Walking The Fallen, took its cues from the Black Album-era of Metallica and the New Wave of American Heavy Metal they were right in the middle of co-founding (see also: Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage), while 2010's Nightmare delivered the tone-shifting highlight "Buried Alive".