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Beast and the Harlot

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Wikipedia article




"'Beast and the Harlot'" is a song by Avenged Sevenfold, the song was released as a single taken from their third studio album 'City of Evil'. The song peaked at #19 on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart, #44 on the UK Singles Chart., and #1 on the UK Rock Chart on March 12, 2006.

The actual song is about the fall of Babylon, The Great from the Book of Revelation (particularly chapter seventeen), from which many quotes are taken, such as "Seven headed beast, ten horns raise from his head", "hatred strips her and leaves her naked", and other references. The Harlot referred to in the song is Great Babylon, quoted in the song, "Fallen now is Babylon The Great." On Avenged Sevenfold's 'All Excess' DVD, Tony Petrossian, who directed the video, says that M. Shadows' lyrics for this song about the fall of Babylon is comparing Babylon to Hollywood, showing many Hollywood clichs such as the young, innocent boys being corrupted and losing their souls. In the music video the Harlot was played by actress Elizabeth Melendez.

Overview



The song is one of the first songs recorded with singer M. Shadows' different vocal style avoiding unclean vocals as well as a more hard rock sound as opposed to their previous work, with heavy and fast riffs and a relatively normal song structure (with the exception of the guitar solo, which comes after the first chorus rather than the second, atypical of a three verse song).

The song's rapid main riff was voted as the 14th greatest riff ever by the guitar magazine 'Total Guitar' in March 2007. 'Total Guitar' wrote: "The main riff to 'Beast and the Harlot' is a great piece of dropped-D riffing with Zacky and Synyster cleverly placing the second part of the riff across the beat to create an aggressive syncopated feel, once again avoiding all the usual metal clichs."

The song was featured in the soundtrack of the video games 'Burnout Revenge', 'Guitar Hero II', and 'Guitar Hero Smash Hits'. The version in 'Guitar Hero II' was a cover version, while 'Smash Hits' featured the master recording. The song was also featured in The Real World Road Rules reunion. The cover art for the single of the song was done by Avenged Sevenfold's close friend Cam Rackam.

The 'Rock Band 3' version of the original master recording of the song being notable in that it has support for Rock Band PRO mode, which takes advantage of the use of a real guitar / bass guitar, along with standard MIDI-compatible electronic drum kits / keyboards in addition to up to three-part harmony and/or backing vocals.

The song was released for 'Rocksmith' on October 30, 2012.

Track listings



;Digital single

#"Beast and the Harlot (Radio Version)" - 4:03

#"Burn It Down (Live in San Diego)" - 5:45

;CD

#"Beast and the Harlot (Edit)" - 4:06

#"Beast and the Harlot" - 5:42

;Vinyl

'A'. "Beast and the Harlot (Edit)" - 4:06

'B'. "Burn It Down (Live)" - 5:45

Inspiration



The band drew heavily from Biblical literature, history, and old literature, including, as previously mentioned, segments of the Book of Revelation, as well as Dante's 'Divine Comedy of Hell'. Historically, the sexually deviant [http://ldolphin.org/semir.html queen of Babylon] provided the basis for the song, as well as the recurring theme of sexual temptation in the music video.

The seven headed beast with 10 horns, which is referred to many times in the song, is the anti-Christ. Since Babylon collapsed, ("fallen now is Babylon The Great") presumably because of its moral deficiencies, it can be assumed that Dante and Shadows were correct.

The black tar which represents the departed soul in the corrupted victims in the video is derived from Dante's 5th Malebolge in Hell. The demons wreck the sinners (in that case, those who betrayed the church) with hooked spears.

Personnel



;Avenged Sevenfold

*M. Shadows lead vocals

*Zacky Vengeance rhythm guitar, backing vocals

*The Rev drums

*Synyster Gates lead guitar, piano, backing vocals

*Johnny Christ bass

;Other

*Andrew Murdock production

*Cam Rackam artwork

Accolades



References



Category:2006 singles

Category:2005 songs

Category:Warner Records singles

Category:Avenged Sevenfold songs

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