Watch: AVENGED SEVENFOLD Plays Special Club Show Celebrating 'Waking The Fallen' And 'City Of Evil' Albums

Last night (Friday, October 25),AVENGED SEVENFOLD played a special throwback show featuring a setlist composed of songs from the band's breakout 2003 album, "Waking The Fallen", and its 2005 follow-up, "City Of Evil". Headlining the concert at Santa Ana, California's Observatory venue was the long-running Southern California hardcore punk band DEATH BY STEREO

In the spirit of Halloween, AVENGED SEVENFOLD vocalist M. Shadows appeared in a skeleton jumpsuit and skull makeup for the rarities-packed setlist, which saw the band perform some of the tracks for the first time in at least six years.

The setlist for the show was as follows:

01. To End The Rapture (first time since 2017)
02. Chapter Four (first time since 2018)
03. Burn It Down (first time since 2018)
04. Blinded In Chains
05. Remenissions (first time since 2016)
06. Seize The Day
07. Second Heartbeat (first time since 2018)
08. Desecrate Through Reverence (first time since 2004, first performance with Brooks Wackerman)
09. Unholy Confessions
10. Beast And The Harlot (first time since 2018; fans playing with band)
11. M.I.A. (first time since 2018)

Tickets to the show were made in August exclusively for members of the Deathbats Club, a next-generation fan club and community built around AVENGED SEVENFOLD, priced at $25 each (there was a two-ticket limit on orders).

AVENGED SEVENFOLD and DEATH BY STEREO have a long history together, having toured together two decades ago. In addition, AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows contributed guest vocals to two songs — "Entombed We Collide" and "This Is Not The End" — on DEATH BY STEREO's 2005 album "Death For Life".

This past June, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance told NME that he and his bandmates were making plans to celebrate the anniversaries of their albums "City Of Evil" and "Nightmare", which are turning 20 and 15 in 2025, respectively. He said: "I think those albums are really monumental and fans have grown with them. They've meant a certain thing to people at a certain place in their life, so I think it's important that we do something."

Explaining that he didn't want AVENGED SEVENFOLD to be a "nostalgia act", Vengeance added: "I've always wanted to be as proud of whatever we put out today as I was when we put out those albums." But, he said, "I'm totally cool with celebrating those albums because it was such a great place and time. Plus, it's actually fun to relive and play those songs and get those reactions. To bank our entire career off past successes, we can't do it, but we'll definitely do something to celebrate those albums though. For us, the most exciting thing about looking back is recalling where our heads were at when we were young and writing them. Remembering that they're part of who we are."

"City Of Evil", AVENGED SEVENFOLD's third album, produced the singles "Bat Country" and "Beast And The Harlot", while "Nightmare", the band's fifth studio LP, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. Both records have since been certified platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for shipments in excess of a million copies in the U.S. alone.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD has spent much of the past year and a half touring in support of its most recent album, 2023's "Life Is But A Dream…"