Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold (sometimes abbreviated as A7X) is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Synyster Gates, bassist and backing vocalist Johnny Christ, and drummer Brooks Wackerman.

Avenged Sevenfold is known for its diverse rock sound and dramatic imagery in album covers and merchandise.[1] Avenged Sevenfold emerged with a metalcore sound on the band's debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. However, Avenged Sevenfold's style had evolved by the band's third album and first major label release, City of Evil, into a heavy metal and hard rock style. The band continued to explore new sounds with its self-titled release and enjoyed continued mainstream success before their drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan, died in 2009. Despite his death, Avenged Sevenfold continued on with the help of now-former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and released and toured in support of its fifth album Nightmare in 2010, which debuted on the top spot of the Billboard 200, Avenged Sevenfold's first number one debut.[2] Avenged Sevenfold's latest record Hail to the King, which was released in 2013, marked the only Avenged Sevenfold album featuring drummer Arin Ilejay. Hail to the King charted as number 1 on the Billboard 200, the UK Albums chart, as well as the Finnish, Brazilian, Canadian, and Irish charts.

To date, Avenged Sevenfold has released six studio albums, one live album/compilation/DVD, and eighteen singles and have sold over 8 million albums worldwide.

Formation and Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (1999-2002)
The band was formed in 1999 in Huntington Beach, California with original members M. Shadows, Zacky Vengeance, The Rev and Matt Wendt. M Shadows came up with the name as a reference to the story of Cain and Abel from The Bible, which can be found in Genesis 4:24, although they are not a religious band.[4] Upon its formation, each member of the band also took on a pseudonym which were already nicknames of theirs from high school.[5] Matt Wendt was later replaced by Justin 'Sane' Meacham who was previously the bassist for Suburban Legends.

Before the release of their debut album, the band recorded two demos in 1999 and 2000.[6][7] In mid-2001, it was reported that Meacham had attempted suicide [8] by drinking excessive amounts of cough syrup.[9] The attempt affected the band's Take Action Tour.[8] During his hospitalization he remained in poor condition and was replaced by Dameon Ash.[9] In an interview, lead singer M. Shadows said of Meacham that "he perma-fried his brain and was in a mental institution for a long time, and when you have someone in your band who does that, it ruins everything that's going on all around you, and it makes you want to do something to prevent it from happening to other people."[9] Avenged Sevenfold's debut album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, was recorded when the band members were in their late teens and still in high school. It was originally released on their first label, Good Life Recordings in 2001.[10] After lead guitarist Synyster Gates joined the band after the album was released, the introductory track "To End the Rapture" was re-recorded featuring a full band element. The album was subsequently re-released on Hopeless Records in 2002. The band started to receive recognition, performing with bands such as Mushroomhead and Shadows Fall and playing on the Take Action Tour.

Waking the Fallen and City of Evil (2003-2006)
Having found a new bassist, Johnny Christ, the group released their second studio album titled Waking the Fallen on Hopeless Records in August 2003. The album featured a more refined and mature sound production in comparison to their previous album. The band received profiles in Billboard and The Boston Globe, and played in the Vans Warped Tour.[13][14] In 2004, Avenged Sevenfold toured again on the Vans Warped Tour and recorded a video for their song "Unholy Confessions" which went into rotation on MTV2's Headbanger's Ball.[15] Shortly after the release of Waking the Fallen, Avenged Sevenfold left Hopeless Records and were signed to Warner Bros. Records.

City of Evil, the band's third album and major label debut, was released on June 7, 2005 and debuted at No.30 on the Billboard 200 chart, selling over 30,000 copies in its first week of release.[16][17] It utilized a more classic metal sound than Avenged Sevenfold's previous albums, which had been grouped into the metalcore genre.[18][19] The album is also notable for the absence of screamed and growled vocals; M. Shadows worked with vocal coach Ron Anderson—whose clients have included Axl Rose and Chris Cornell—for months before the album's release to achieve a sound that had "grit while still having the tone".[18][20] The album received positive reviews from several magazines and websites and is credited for propelling the band into international popularity.

After playing Ozzfest in 2006, Avenged Sevenfold memorably beat out R&B Singers Rihanna and Chris Brown, Panic! at the Disco, Angels & Airwaves and James Blunt for the title of Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards, thanks in part to their Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas-inspired song “Bat Country.”[21] They returned to the Vans Warped Tour, this time headlining and then continued on their own "Cities of Evil Tour."[22] In addition, their lead single "Bat Country" reached No.2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts, No.6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Charts and the accompanying video made it to No.1 on MTV's Total Request Live.[23] Propelled by this success, the album sold well and became Avenged Sevenfold's first gold record.[24] It was later certified platinum in August 2009.

Self Titled Album and the Death of The Rev (2007-2009)
Avenged Sevenfold was invited to join Ozzfest tour on the main stage, alongside other well known rock/heavy metal acts such as DragonForce, Lacuna Coil, Hatebreed, Disturbed and System of a Down for the first time in 2006.[25] That same year they also completed a worldwide tour, including the US, The United Kingdom (as well as mainland Europe), Japan, Australia and New Zealand. After a sixteen-month promotion of City of Evil, the band announced that they were cancelling their Fall 2006 tour to record new music.[26] In the interim, the band released their first DVD titled All Excess on July 17, 2007.[27] All Excess, which debuted as the No.1 DVD in the USA, included live performances and backstage footage that spanned the band's eight-year career. Two tribute albums, Strung Out on Avenged Sevenfold: Bat Wings and Broken Strings and Strung Out on Avenged Sevenfold: The String Tribute were also released in October 2007.

On October 26, 2007, Avenged Sevenfold released their self-titled album, the band's fourth studio album. It debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with over 90,000 copies sold.[28] Two singles, "Critical Acclaim" and "Almost Easy" were released prior to the album's debut. In December 2007, an animated video was made for "A Little Piece of Heaven". Due to the song's controversial subject matter, however, Warner Brothers only released it to registered MVI users over the internet. The third single, "Afterlife" and its video was released in January 2008. Their fourth single, "Dear God", was released on June 15, 2008. Although critical reception was generally mixed the self-titled album went on to sell over 500,000 copies and was awarded "Album of the Year" at the Kerrang! Awards.

Avenged Sevenfold headlined the 2008 Taste of Chaos tour with Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine, Blessthefall and Idiot Pilot.[30] They used the footage from their last show in Long Beach for Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough, a two-disc B-sides CD and live DVD which was released on September 16, 2008. They also recorded numerous covers, including Pantera's "Walk", Iron Maiden's "Flash of the Blade" and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid".

In January 2009, M. Shadows confirmed that the band was writing the follow-up to their self-titled fourth album within the upcoming months.[33] They also played at Rock on the Range, from May 16–17, 2009.[34] On April 16, they performed a version of Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy" onstage with Slash, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.[35] On December 28, 2009, the band's drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan was found dead at his home at the age of 28.[36] Autopsy results were inconclusive,[37] but on June 9, 2010, the cause of death was revealed to have been an "acute polydrug intoxication due to combined effects of Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Diazepam/Nordiazepam and ethanol".[38] In a statement by the band, they expressed their grief over the passing of The Rev and later posted a message from Sullivan's family which expressed their gratitude to his fans for their support.

Nightmare (2010-2011)
The band members admitted in a number of interviews that they considered disbanding at this point in time. However, on February 17, 2010, Avenged Sevenfold stated that they had entered the studio, along with now-former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, to drum for the album, in place of The Rev.[43]

The single "Nightmare" was digitally released on May 18, 2010.[44][45] A preview for the song was released on May 6, 2010 on Amazon.com, but was removed soon after for unknown reasons.[45] Mixing for the album had been completed in New York City, and Nightmare was finally released worldwide on July 27, 2010.[46] It met with mixed to positive reviews from music critics but was well received by the fans. Nightmare beat sales projections easily, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with sales of 163,000 units in its first week.[47] After finishing recording, in December, Portnoy and the band posted simultaneous statements on their websites stating that he would not be their replacement for The Rev. However, Portnoy did travel with the band overseas in December 2010 for three shows in Iraq and Kuwait sponsored by the USO. They played for U.S. Soldiers at Camp Adder, Camp Beuhring, and Balad Air Base.[48] On January 20, 2011, Avenged Sevenfold announced via Facebook that former Confide drummer Arin Ilejay would begin touring with them that year. He was not yet considered a full-time member at this point.[49][50]

In May 2011, it was confirmed that the band had written a new song to be included in the Escalation DLC pack for the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops.[51] The song is the first time developers Treyarch have commissioned an outside band to contribute a song since the franchise began. The song, titled "Not Ready to Die", was released on iTunes on May 2, 2011.

Avenged Sevenfold performed at the Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals on June 3–5, 2011 alongside other bands such as Alter Bridge, System of a Down, and In Flames.[52] On April 2011, the band headlined the Golden God Awards held by Metal Hammer. The same night the band won three awards for "Best Vocalist" (M. Shadows), "Epiphone Best Guitarist(s)" (Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance) and "Affliction’s Album of The Year: " for Nightmare, while Mike Portnoy won the award for "Drum Workshop’s Best Drummer" for his work on the album.

Avenged Sevenfold headlined the 2011 Uproar Festival with supporting acts Three Days Grace, Seether, Bullet For My Valentine, Escape The Fate, among others.[53] In August 2011, vocalist M. Shadows stated the band would finish the Uproar Festival, then go home to take a break for six to seven months before starting a new record.[54] He also roughly stated that Arin Ilejay and the band were getting along well, but they had to make sure he would be comfortable writing music with them. In November and December 2011, the band went on their "Buried Alive" tour with supporting acts Hollywood Undead, Asking Alexandria, and Black Veil Brides.