It's a good idea to make sure that no one is putting away any glassware, or trying to build a house of cards, when you hit play on the new CD by Avenged Sevenfold [ tickets ]. "City of Evil" takes off with the fury of a squadron of fighter planes and continues to unleash enough firepower to bring down a small Third World country.

Making good on the promise shown by "Sounding the Seventh Trumpet" and "Waking the Fallen," this Southern California act uses pure brawn to weld together a raucous mix of metal, hard rock and hardcore punk on this strong debut for Warner Bros.

The music is uniformly muscular, whether the band is selling itself to the Ozzfest nation with a Pantera-like song or going for the skate-punk crowd by hailing Bad Religion. Ultimately, however, the group manages to find its own distinct brand of heaviness on fierce tracks like "Bat Country" (a tribute to the late adventurer Hunter S. Thompson) and "Trashed and Scattered." As with previous albums, The Reverend absolutely dominates "City of Evil" with his machinegun drumming on such numbers as "Burn It Down" and "Blinded in Chains."

The band is one of the headliners on this year's Warped Tour. Judging by "City of Evil," the weak of heart should clear the mosh pit when Avenged Sevenfold takes the stage.