There’s no mistaking who’s playing Sydney’s Afterpay Arena tonight. Avenged Sevenfold T-shirts are everywhere, the crowd is in high spirits, and there’s a serious buzz around the American metal heavyweights’ return to Australia. It’s been 12 years since their last visit, and Sydney is more than ready for them.

First up are Melbourne’s Thornhill, a band who have rapidly established themselves as one of Australia’s most exciting heavy music exports. They’re not interested in sticking to the metalcore rulebook, mixing alternative rock, electronic elements and plenty of muscle into their increasingly adventurous sound.

Their third album, BODIES, followed 2022’s ARIA-nominated Heroine and takes things in an even bolder direction. It’s heavy, unpredictable and packed with sharp contrasts, moving between crushing riffs and soaring melodies. Tonight gives Thornhill another chance to show why they’re making serious waves beyond Australia.

Next are Coheed and Cambria, who make their entrance to Grand Funk Railroad’s We’re an American Band. It’s a cracking way to announce the arrival of a group who have spent more than two decades building one of rock’s strangest and most ambitious musical universes.

Led by the unmistakable Claudio Sanchez, the American quartet sit somewhere between progressive rock, metal and the emotional punch of early-2000s alternative music. Their songs are packed with twists, turns and enough musical ambition to keep things interesting.

While other bands are happy writing about everyday life, Coheed and Cambria have created an entire science-fiction mythology around The Amory Wars, a sprawling saga that stretches across albums, comics and novels. Their latest chapter, The Father of Make Believe, keeps that story rolling while proving there’s still plenty of fuel in the tank.

But tonight’s main attraction is impossible to ignore.

When Avenged Sevenfold hit the stage, the sheer scale of the production is ridiculous. An enormous structure towers over the five musicians, making even the drum riser, which moves up and down throughout the show, look tiny in the distance.

It’s hard to know where to look.

Lasers snake out across the arena and into the crowd, while the stage becomes a constantly changing wall of light and movement. It’s a full-blown sensory overload, with a production so enormous it threatens to swallow the band whole.

And the audience isn’t hanging around. By the second song, fans are already pouring over the front barrier, giving security plenty to do as the energy on the floor goes through the roof. Thousands of fans are throwing themselves into a show they’ve waited more than a decade to see on Australian soil.

Frontman M. Shadows leads a band who have become one of metal’s biggest international acts. Alongside guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman, he’s helped take Avenged Sevenfold from Californian outsiders to arena-filling heavyweights.

The numbers speak for themselves. Millions of albums sold, consecutive Billboard number-one records with Nightmareand Hail to the King, and a global following that keeps growing. They’re well beyond the point of needing to prove their place in modern metal.

But they’re clearly not interested in standing still. Their latest album, 2023’s Life Is But a Dream…, is a strange, ambitious and occasionally downright baffling record that throws expectations out the window. Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the band are willing to take risks.

That same attitude runs through tonight’s show. Everything is bigger, louder and more elaborate than it needs to be, but that’s precisely the point. Avenged Sevenfold aren’t doing things by halves.

And for all the lasers, technology and towering stage production, it’s the crowd that really drives the night. From the sea of band shirts to the constant stream of bodies coming over the barrier, Sydney’s metal fans are completely caught up in it.

After 12 years away, Avenged Sevenfold aren’t interested in easing themselves back into Australia. They arrive at Afterpay Arena with a production that dwarfs the musicians, a crowd that refuses to stand still and a show that takes arena metal to gloriously excessive heights.

The tour moves to Brisbane and Melbourne next, tickets HERE.

Images Deb Pelser

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