“I hear we’ve sold more tickets than Kanye West,” boasted Avenged Sevenfold lead vocalist, Matt Shadows, to thousands of eager fans at the Singapore Expo Max Pavilion on Oct 24.

He was referring to 10-Grammy-winning hip hop singer-rapper Kanye West, whose Glow in the Dark Tour is taking place 5 days later at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Whether Shadows’ comment was true or not, it was unsurprisingly met with loud cheers of approval and enthusiasm from their diehard metal rock fans.

“Are you telling me that rock and roll is more popular than hip hop in Singapore?” asked the 27-year-old Californian again, not that he actually needed the audience’s reaction to further stroke his ego.

They’d been hollering for “Sevenfold” all evening until the 5-member band: vocalist Shadows, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ as well as drummer The Rev, finally showed up on stage at 9 pm.

It has been a long wait for their fans, who have been pining for their return since their SINGfest 2007 performance at Fort Canning Park, their debut performance in Singapore.

And the wait was more than worth it. This American metal rock band has been gathering popularity ever since their formation in 1999 when the boys were still in high school.

Belting out songs from their latest album, self-titled Avenged Sevenfold, which debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 charts and was awarded “Album of the Year 2008” by Kerrang! magazine, was a given. As hit songs such as “Almost Easy”, “Scream”, “Gunslinger”, “Critical Acclaim” and “A Little Piece of Heaven” were played, the crowd was up on their feet and toes head-banging, screaming and video-recording the performances all at once.

In fact, the crowd was so into the music that these loud mosh-crazy fans simply out-sang Shadows. There were frequent times when his voice just trailed off or became lost among the audience’s incessant screams. But that’s understandable, considering Shadows’ recent time-off to rest his voice due to medical reasons.

Other than that, however, the boys have done well to entertain their fans. Vengeance and Gates wow-ed the crowd with their guitar riffs and trademark duelling performances. The former even performed and sang an untitled song, which earned appreciative applause from the audience even though they were unfamiliar with it.

The bassist also wasn’t about to be outdone as he rocked from one end of the stage to the other and Rev surely made his presence known with his quick drumming skills.

Their long-time fans were further treated to A7X’s old hits from their 2005 album City of Evil such as “Bat Country”, “Beast and the Harlot” and “Seize the Day”, as well as their 2003 Waking the Fallen album with “Unholy Confessions”.

Unfortunately, such an entertaining performance has left a slight feeling of dissatisfaction among their hardline fans. They couldn’t get enough of A7X then at Fort Canning Park, and they couldn’t get enough of A7X now at Max Pavilion. After all, their performance only lasted exactly an hour.

Thankfully, the crowds’ enthusiastic support for the band has prompted Shadows to once again promise that A7X will return for another heart-thumping performance. It seems that A7X’s fans have more waiting to do.

Photo taken by Midas Promotions/OnEvent