Avenged Sevenfold is fired up

Heavy metal is eternal, but it always craves new blood. And if Avenged Sevenfold is not the first young band to spot-weld timeless metal moves onto the emotional drive of hardcore punk, the Orange County act remains among a scarce few to give it a fresh spin amid the raging gloom.

At the Gibson Amphitheatre on Friday, the tattooed quintet roared through about 75 minutes of melodic hard rock with heavy echoes of Metallica, Judas Priest and Guns ‘N Roses for a sold-out crowd of mostly young fans. Singer M. Shadows (a.k.a. Matt Sanders) looked like a punk-rock Rob Halford, standing behind mirror shades, and shouting and grinding out lyrics of absolute defiance and emotional pain.

For 2003’s anthemic “I Won’t See You Tonight (Part 1),” Shadows wailed: “No more nights, no more pain / I’ve gone alone, took all my strength / I’ve made the change.” Soon, the guitars of Synyster Gates (Brian Haner) and Zacky Vengeance (Zachary Baker) edged toward the epic scope of GNR, with extended instrumental flourishes right out of 1987, as fans waved cellphones above their heads.

Some of the youngest maybe have never heard the band’s key rock influences firsthand, but still have embraced the sound enough to turn last year’s “City of Evil” album into an accelerating success. (It was formally awarded the band’s first gold record, marking 500,000 in sales, earlier on Friday.)

By the end of the night, the band turned its horror-show guitars to its anxious breakthrough hit, “Bat Country.” And as with the rest of the show, there were enough strobe lights and fog that the stage looked as if it were on fire, helping to ignite yet one more metal generation.