According to the interweb, this is a compilation banged out by the record label to spoil AX7’s latest release on a new label.

Warner Bros sued them (or tried to) when the band said they wanted to leave because a majority of the executives who signed the band to Warner were no longer at the label.

Warner apparently tried to get this double CD out the same day as the new album, but were even sneakier than that, this compilation reportedly being the band members’ favourite tunes and there’s an excellent bonus CD that will tempt fans who already have all the tracks.

Avenged Sevenfold are classed as a metal band, but are far more than that with the complexity and extravagance of Queen and something of the sound of Iron Maiden. There’s a lot of melody and wit in all their songs.

CD1 errs towards the melodic, with several quieter songs and the whole very radio-friendly. CD2 is even better, featuring a worthy cover of Pantera’s Walk and Sabbaths’ Paranoid, as well as tracks featured in the games Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of the Dead.

It may have been released for baser motives, but it’s a good sampler of the band’s work.

Buy: