Avenged Sevenfold are an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999.
Upon its formation, each member of the band also took on a pseudonym which were already nicknames of theirs from high school
They are known for their diverse rock sound and dramatic imagery in album covers and t-shirts.
Avenged Sevenfold emerged with a metalcore sound on their debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet but their style had
evolved by their third album and first major label release, City of Evil, into a hard rock/heavy metal sound.
The band continued to explore new sounds with their self-titled release and enjoyed continued mainstream
success before their drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan, died in 2009. Despite his death, the band
continued on with help of now-former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy.
-Wikipedia
Also Known As: A7X
Members:
M. Shadows (1999-Present) (Matthew Charles Sanders) - Lead Vocals
Synyster Gates (2001-Present) (Brian Elwin Haner, Jr.) - Lead Guitars, Backing Vocals
Zacky Vengeance (1999-Present) (Zachary Johnathan Baker) - Rhythm Guitars, Backing Vocals
Johnny Christ (2002-Present) (Johnathan Lewis Seward) - Bass (not to be confused with John Christ of Danzig)
Arin Ilejay - drums (2011-present)
Name Origin:
They 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.
In this story Cain is punished to live in exile, alone and miserable. Anyone who relieved Cain of his misery by
killing him would be "avenged in sevenfold," or punished in a way that is seven times worse than Cain's punishment.
From: Huntington Beach, California, U.S.
Genre(s):
Heavy metal,
hard rock,
metalcore (early)
Active From: 1999-present
Associated Acts:
Pinkly Smooth,
Confide,
Suburban Legends,
Brian Haner,
Sr.,
Good Charlotte
Awards:
MTV Video Music Award for Artist to Watch, Kerrang! Award for Best Album
MTV Music Video Award for Best New Artist in a Video, "Bat Country"
Quotes:
"We play music for the sake of music, not so that we can be labeled a metal band. That's like telling us we aren't punk enough. Who cares? -M. Shadows
Sometimes we tell everyone to f*ck off and sometimes we are cool with it. I guess we handle it the way that any normal person would. Somedays we are all for it and some days you want to kill everyone!
M. Shadows
We've been criticized since day one. We love it. The more people talk, the more people get interested in the band. Selling out is a term kids use in high school. Anyone that calls us a sell out has never heard the record or they are basing it off of the fact that we dont scream anymore.
M. Shadows
I got Appetite for Destruction from my dad when I was younger and after that it was all history. I fell in love with rock music and started taking piano and teaching myself guitar.
M. Shadows
It's where you see all the hard work really come out in the writing; touring's hard work but not as hard as this, we have to get up early and just hang out and spend all day and night just writing up ideas- it's like a jigsaw with five million pieces that we have to put together
Zacky
Yeah, I think so, we're always evolving, we're a lot more mature and a lot more mellowed out and you're going to hear a bit more of that, I think you guys will enjoy it a lot.
Synyster