18 October 2026 – Brisbane Entertainment Centre – words by Lucas Bell – pictures by Isis Totora
It’s been 4621 days since the California rockers Avenged Sevenfold have graced a stage in Brisbane. Off the back of Soundwave 2014, no one anticipated the second billed band of the festival would take over 12 years to return. But last night, they did in a big way, headlining the biggest indoor venue in Brisbane at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. And with bands like Coheed and Cambria and Thornhill on the support, this was going to be an insanely hype night of quality tunes, and we were lucky enough to be invited to catch this monumental moment.
First up on tonight’s triple bill were one of Melbourne’s hottest acts, Thornhill. From the jump, the crowd were going crazy for these guys. The set opened with tracks like ‘DIESEL’ and ‘Revolver’, as massive circle pits enveloped the floor. Vocalist Jacob Charlton didn’t do much talking, but used the moments to talk as rallying cries for more pit action. The set consisted exclusively of songs from 2025’s ‘Bodies’. We got all the singles, like ‘Obsession’, ‘Silver Swarm’, and ‘Mercia’, and set closer ‘nerv’. ‘nerv’ specifically, had Charlton getting the crowd low for a big jump at the start, and Brisbane chanted loudly for one more song as the band left the stage.
Next up were my all time favourite band, Coheed and Cambria. It’s no secret how much I love this band. Their iconography is tattooed all over my body. And while at first the Brisbane crowd didn’t seem to dig it early with ‘In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3’ being over eight minutes long, I was 100% in my element singing every word. The set list immediately deviated from the show the band played in Sydney, with the pace picking up quickly as ‘Ten Speed (Of God’s Blood and Burial)’ played. The crowd did go a bit mental for this track, and from here on out, the crowd were 100% on side. ‘Searching for Tomorrow’ was so cool to hear live. I’ve loved this song from the latest record, and cruising through Japan as this song plays on the new Forza game, I loved the live experience of this track.
The rest of the set was a good mix of old and new eras of the band. ‘Key Entity Extraction II: Holly Wood the Cracked’ brought the dark, moody vibes, and was a song I honestly though I’d never hear live, and backed up with the fun, boppy energy of ‘Shoulders’ felt like tonal whiplash in my favourite way. I always say this too, but shout out to bassist Zach Cooper on the bassline to this song. It’s so fucking good, and I was watching everyone groove to it. ‘Blind Side Sonny’ had lead singer and guitarist Claudio Sanchez dancing and grooving all over the stage as he did his signature two steps everywhere, while drummer Josh Eppard pushed his body to a crazy limit on this song.
Another long song, this time ‘Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry the Defiant’, and my god, hearing this live for the first time elevated me into a spiritual zone I’ve never experienced before. God this song rules. Guitarist Travis Stever jumped on the mic to say a couple of words about getting hyped for Avenged, and how much of a privilege it was for Coheed to both be opening for them, and being back in Brisbane. He asked for dancing, as ‘A Favor House Atlantic’ started up, and Brisbane got dancing in a big way. But then to double this down with ‘Blood Red Summer’, made my entire night. ‘The Liars Club’ was dedicated to all the liars, and the phones came out in mass for the band’s final song, ‘Welcome Home’, as the crowd sang it as loud as they could. Also, during the final moments of the outro, Claudio screamed Avenged over and over and the crowd got insane. Honestly, my favourite band in the entire world. I cannot wait for them to come back to Australia already.
After Avenged Sevenfold’s STATICA EP played in full before call time, the lights went out, ‘Nightcall’ by Kavinsky played over the speakers to almost total darkness. As a fan of the movie Drive, this was a big win for me. This song rules, and that movie rules, and more people should see it. Anyways, as the band made their way out on stage to thunderous applause, lead vocalist M. Shadows told Brisbane “I have one word for you” as he had the entire venue screamed ‘Nightmare’. Something that confused me at first, was it looked like drummer Brooks Wackerman was inside the screens at the back of the venue. It was so weird, but he looked like he was in jail. But as ‘Game Over’ started, he rose up to a second stage above the band, in full view of the crowd. It was a really sick set up.
Avenged Sevenfold – BEC – photos by Isis Totora
‘Afterlife’ had the crowd singing the choruses so loud, Shadows let them, and this song had some of the most hectic lasers I’ve ever seen at a show, inscribing runes onto the video screen. Shadows told the crowd in the chairs to not be shy, and to put their hands up as ‘Shepard of Fire’ played, as Brooks sank back to behind the video screens. ‘Buried Alive’ saw Wackerman back up again, as guitarist Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates ripped solos side by side during this track. Something I haven’t mentioned yet as well, has been the video production. I’ve not seen such an extravagant video based set since Deftones back in May, but Avenged had one of the craziest video effects sets on all their screens. There were skeletons buried in concrete all around the borders that at times, I forgot it was a video screen. It all looked so lifelike and real.
Avenged Sevenfold – BEC – photos by Isis Totora
Shadows finally got a moment to speak at length, and mentioned how long it’s been since the last time the band played Brisbane. Things then got a bit existential, as Shadows tried to figure out if Australia is too far away from California, or California is too far away from Australia, which had the crowd laughing. He shouted out the Sydney show for being good, which got the standard chorus of boos because Sydney was mentioned, and Shadows asked if anyone peeped the setlist from Sydney. He said they were changing it, and played ‘Seize the Day’, which at the end before the solo was dedicated to the forever brilliant Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. A touching moment at the end as Shadows put his hand to the sky and muttered into the microphone “we love you Jimmy” as the crowd cheered loudly for The Rev.
Avenged Sevenfold – BEC – photos by Isis Totora
Shadows asked everyone to stand still for the next song, before changing his minds to tell everyone to bang their fucking heads as ‘Nobody’ played. We got another song Sydney didn’t get, with ‘MIA’, as the sheer mention of 2005 ‘City of Evil’ sent the crowd wild. Shadows sang the outro with someone on the barrier, who Shadows encouraged to get into a band ASAP. Before ‘Gunslinger’, someone screamed out for the band to play the song ‘Exist’, as the band did a halfway job of playing it on the fly. “If we played ‘Exist’, 80% of this place would leave” joked Shadows. More of the sick video effects came into play here, with a grimy brown filter and white screens make the video playback look sick as fuck.
Avenged Sevenfold – BEC – photos by Isis Totora
As the intro riff to ‘Hail to the King’ played, Brisbane light on fire, as “Hail” chants broke out loudly. Shadows told Brisbane the next three songs would be back to back no breaks, and while that might have been the intention, they totally stopped between songs. Horns went up for ‘Bat Country’, and Shadows told Zacky to spin off the intro to ‘Unholy Confessions’ for Mario and Luigi in the pit. After Wackerman ripped a gnarly drum solo, we got ‘A Little Piece of Heaven’, which I think even featured the original backing track of The Rev’s vocals on his parts of the song, which was neat. The set closed out on ‘Cosmic’, as Shadows had a vocal manipulation rig out on stage for the final moments of the song, as he distorted his vocals for the ending, telling Brisbane in warped vocals “Brisbane, we love you. Goodnight”. Hopefully Avenged don’t leave it another 12 years to return. There is a hunger for these guys in Australia. Hopefully they’re back soon.
