Music
Avenged Sevenfold
These guys excel at the complex, pummeling Eighties-metal moves that first came into circulation when they were in diapers. "Critical Acclaim" is a barnburner built around a half-dozen or so rather dope riffs. Problem is, there's not much else here beyond the deft instrumental assault: The tunes — or at least whatever M. Shadows feels like bellowing — sound like the kind of lame, nu-metal angst-mongering that dominated the radio in the late Nineties.