Beast and the Harlot


"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 12 March 2006.
The actual song is about the fall of Babylon, The Great from the Book of Revelation, 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 clichés 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.
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 clichés."
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
  1. "Beast and the Harlot " - 4:03
  2. "Burn It Down " - 5:45
;CD
  1. "Beast and the Harlot " - 4:06
  2. "Beast and the Harlot" - 5:42
;Vinyl
A. "Beast and the Harlot " - 4:06
B. "Burn It Down " - 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 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, 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 with hooked spears.

Personnel

;Avenged Sevenfold
;Other
RegionYearPublicationAccoladeRank
United States2015Loudwire10 Best Metal Riffs of the 2000s7