 M.
Shadows - lead vocals
Synyster Gates - lead guitars, piano, backing vocals
Zacky Vengeance - rhythm guitars, backing vocals
Johnny Christ - bass, backing vocals
The Rev - drums, percussion, vocals, piano
Early years
Avenged Sevenfold is an American hard rock/heavy metal band
from Huntington Beach, California. The band was formed in 1999.
Avenged Sevenfold's first album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet,
was recorded when the band members were eighteen years old. It
was originally released on their first label, Good Life
Recordings. After lead guitarist Synyster Gates joined the band,
the introductory track "To End The Rapture" was re-recorded with
Gates playing, and the album was re-released on Hopeless
Records. Their follow-up album, entitled Waking the Fallen,
was also released on Hopeless Records and was awarded a positive
rating in Rolling Stone magazine. Shortly after its release,
Avenged Sevenfold were signed to Warner Bros. Records.
Mainstream success
City of Evil, the third album which
was released on 7 June 2005, strayed from
metalcore, and M. Shadows chose to abandon the
screaming from the first two albums. Although
Shadows acknowledges throat and vocal cord
damage, and the following surgery to help
correct the issues, he says that the change in
vocal style was not a result. In their new DVD
"All Excess", Mudrock, producer of Avenged's
second and third albums, said prior to Waking
the Fallen, Shadows had stated that he
wanted a CD with half-screaming, then one with
no screaming, which was achieved in City of
Evil. Shadows maintains that he's able to
scream even better than before since the surgery
and training with vocal coach Ron Anderson, who
worked with various artists, from Axl Rose, to
Kylie Minogue, and Chris Cornell.
Recent events
In 2006 A7X completed a
worldwide tour, including the
US, England, Europe, Japan,
Australia and New Zealand. After
canceling Fall and Winter 2006
tour dates, the band announced
that they were planning their
fourth studio album, a
self-titled album. M.
Shadows has stated that it would
not be a City of Evil Part 2
or Waking the Fallen Part 2,
but he says it will attract fans
of both original albums while
still being a surprise. They
played their first tour dates of
2007 on an Asian tour with stops
in Indonesia, Singapore, and
Japan. To "tide fans over" until
the release of the new album,
Avenged Sevenfold released their
first DVD, All Excess, on
17 July 2007. The DVD includes a
documentary and live footage
dating back to 1999 along with
music videos and the making of
the Seize the Day music video.
The self titled album was
released out on October 30, 2007
to early success, debuting at #4
on the Billboard 200 with
approximately 94,000 copies
sold. Two singles, "Critical
Acclaim" and "Almost Easy" along
with its music video, were
released prior to the album. An
animated video was made for "A
Little Piece of Heaven" and was
going to be included on the MVI,
but due to the song's subject
matter (i.e. necrophilia),
Warner Brothers released it to
registered MVI users over the
age of 18 in December of 2007.
The third single, "Afterlife"
and its video was released in
January 2008. Avenged Sevenfold
has confirmed that their fourth
single is the country rock style
song "Dear God". They are
currently headlining the Taste
of Chaos tour with Atreyu,
Bullet for My Valentine,
Blessthefall and Idiot Pilot. On
the tour, they are recording a
live DVD, entitled Road to
Realization, which will also
include the rest of their
unreleased studio songs from the
most recent album.
Band name and
lyrical content
The band's
name is a
reference to the
Book of Genesis
in the Bible,
where Cain is
sentenced to
live in exile
for murdering
his brother. God
marked him so
that none would
kill him on
account of his
sin; the man who
dared to kill
Cain would
suffer
"vengeance seven
times over" (KJV).
The title of
Avenged
Sevenfold's song
"Chapter Four"
references the
fourth chapter
of Genesis, in
which the story
of Cain and Abel
takes place. The
song's subject
also appears to
be this story.
"Beast and the
Harlot", yet
another song
derived from the
Bible, comes
from the book of
Revelation only
it is written in
the first person
and refers to
the punishment
of Babylon the
Great, world
empire and seat
of false
religion.
Another biblical
reference occurs
in the song "The
Wicked End". In
this song,
several times it
is said "dust
the apple off,
savor each bite,
and deep inside
you know Adam
was right."
making reference
to Adam eating
the forbidden
fruit. Although
the band's title
and members'
stage names make
references to
religion,
Shadows stated
in an interview
that they are
not a religious
band. "Anyone
that reads the
lyrics and
really knew
anything about
us, they would
know we're not
promoting
either," he
said. "That's
one thing about
this band that I
love is that we
never really
shove any kind
of, like,
political or
religious
beliefs on
people. We just,
the music's
there to
entertain and
maybe
thought-provoking
on both sides,
but we don't try
to, like, really
shove anything
down anyone's
throat. There's
too many bands
that do that
nowadays, I
think." The band
has a few songs
that are
somewhat
political in
nature like
"Critical
Acclaim" and
"Blinded In
Chains".
Genre
Avenged Sevenfold's material ranges across many genres, often leaving the concept of genres altogether (especially in their most recent album). For example, Avenged Sevenfold's debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet consisted almost entirely of a metalcore sound, however consisted of several deviations to this genre, most notably in "Streets" which adopts a Punk style, and "Warmness on the Soul", which consists of mainly piano, and could be considered soft rock. Avenged Sevenfold's self-titled album, again, consists of several deviations to less consistent genres and styles, most notably in "Dear God", which adopts a country style, and "A Little Piece of Heaven", which includes elements of broadway show tunes, using primarily brass instruments and stringed orchestra to take over most of the role of the lead and rhythm guitar. The band has, though, changed considerably since its first album, which was characterized as very heavy, to being more of a hard rock type band.
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