Members of Avenged Sevenfold cite In Flames, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, Elton John, Leonard Cohen, At the Gates, Helloween, Dream Theater, Pennywise, NOFX, Pantera, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones as influences.

The band has been categorized under several genres of heavy and extreme music.
Mainly categorized as heavy metal, hard rock, progressive metal and metalcore, Avenged Sevenfold's musical style has consistantly evolved throughout the duration of the band's career.
Initially, the band's debut album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet consisted almost entirely of a metalcore sound.
However, there were several deviations from this genre, most notably in "Streets", which shows a punk rock style, and "Warmness on the Soul", which is a piano ballad.
On Waking the Fallen, the band displayed a metalcore style once more, but added more clean singing and leaned a bit more towards metal and bit less close to hardcore.
In the band's DVD All Excess, producer Andrew Murdock explained this transition: "When I met the band after Sounding the Seventh Trumpet had come out before they had recorded Waking the Fallen, M. Shadows said to me 'This record is screaming.
The record we want to make is going to be half-screaming half-singing.
I don't want to scream anymore.
And the record after that is going to be all singing'."

On Avenged Sevenfold's third album City of Evil, the band chose to outright abandon the metalcore genre, creating a sound consistent with hard rock and heavy metal.
Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album experiments with an even wider array of musical genres than that from City of Evil, most notably in "Dear God", which shows a country style and "A Little Piece of Heaven", which is circled within the influence of Broadway show tunes, using primarily brass instruments and stringed orchestra to take over most of the role of the lead and rhythm guitar.
Nightmare contains further deviations, including a piano ballad called "Fiction", progressive metal-oriented track "Save Me" and a heavy metal sound with extreme vocals and heavier instrumentation on "God Hates Us".
The band's sixth studio album Hail to the King shows more of a classic metal sound and a riff-oriented approach.
On their newest album The Stage, the band explores further into progressive metal, blending it with elements of thrash metal.
In the past, Avenged Sevenfold has also been described as alternative metal, screamo, and pop punk metal.

Avenged Sevenfold has been criticized for "not being metal enough".
In response to this, vocalist M. Shadows said: "we play music for the sake of music, not so that we can be labeled a metal band.
That's like telling us we aren't punk enough.
Who cares?"
Avenged Sevenfold is one of the notable acts of the new wave of American heavy metal.
Members of Avenged Sevenfold cite In Flames, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, Elton John, Leonard Cohen, At the Gates, Helloween, Dream Theater, Pennywise, NOFX, Pantera, Def Leppard, Guns N' Roses, The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and the Rolling Stones as influences.
The band has been categorized under several genres of heavy and extreme music. Mainly categorized as heavy metal, hard rock, progressive metal and metalcore, Avenged Sevenfold's musical style has consistantly evolved throughout the duration of the band's career. Initially, the band's debut album Sounding the Seventh Trumpet consisted almost entirely of a metalcore sound. However, there were several deviations from this genre, most notably in "Streets", which shows a punk rock style, and "Warmness on the Soul", which is a piano ballad. On Waking the Fallen, the band displayed a metalcore style once more, but added more clean singing and leaned a bit more towards metal and bit less close to hardcore. In the band's DVD All Excess, producer Andrew Murdock explained this transition: "When I met the band after Sounding the Seventh Trumpet had come out before they had recorded Waking the Fallen, M. Shadows said to me 'This record is screaming. The record we want to make is going to be half-screaming half-singing. I don't want to scream anymore. And the record after that is going to be all singing'."
On Avenged Sevenfold's third album City of Evil, the band chose to outright abandon the metalcore genre, creating a sound consistent with hard rock and heavy metal. Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album experiments with an even wider array of musical genres than that from City of Evil, most notably in "Dear God", which shows a country style and "A Little Piece of Heaven", which is circled within the influence of Broadway show tunes, using primarily brass instruments and stringed orchestra to take over most of the role of the lead and rhythm guitar. Nightmare contains further deviations, including a piano ballad called "Fiction", progressive metal-oriented track "Save Me" and a heavy metal sound with extreme vocals and heavier instrumentation on "God Hates Us". The band's sixth studio album Hail to the King shows more of a classic metal sound and a riff-oriented approach. On their newest album The Stage, the band explores further into progressive metal, blending it with elements of thrash metal. In the past, Avenged Sevenfold has also been described as alternative metal, screamo, and pop punk metal.
Avenged Sevenfold has been criticized for "not being metal enough". In response to this, vocalist M. Shadows said: "we play music for the sake of music, not so that we can be labeled a metal band. That's like telling us we aren't punk enough. Who cares?" Avenged Sevenfold is one of the notable acts of the new wave of American heavy metal.
Avenged Sevenfold