Avenged Sevenfold’s “Breakdown” Production Video Series is Next Level

Love Avenged Sevenfold or hate them, the Breakdown series the band is currently in the process of unveiling — wherein they go through the original recording session files of select songs from their catalogue and talk about the production decisions, track by track — is fucking incredible and is an absolute must-watch if you have any interest in recording and production.

Avenged Sevenfold were on a completely different level than anyone else when it came to production and arrangement even in their early years, and that’s on full display in their latest “Breakdown” video for “Beast and the Harlot,” which came out in 2005 on City of Evil. Guitarist Synyster Gates hosts the video with current drummer Brooks Wackerman, and the duo really gets into the nitty gritty by isolating layered vocal tracks one by one, talking about drum comping, discussing key modulations and more, all with the original session files on display to illustrate their points. This is an incredible idea for a video series, and Avenged Sevenfold are the perfect band to do it. I could watch this shit for hours.

Watch part two of the “Beast and the Harlot” video below. Part one was released last week (also below), and part three will follow next week, because this song is so complex it needs three videos to explain it all! Also check out a Breakdown video for “Almost Easy” released last year.