Avenged Sevenfold hails from Huntington Beach, California! The band formed in 1999 when its members were still in high school. The members include M. Shadows/Matt Sanders (vocals), Synyster Gates/Brian Haner (lead guitar), Zacky Vengeance/Zach Baker (rhythm guitar), Johnny Christ/John Seward (bass), and The Rev/Jimmy Sullivan (drums).
As you look through our website, you will notice that we are using an acronym that Avenged Sevenfold uses to basically shorten their name. The acronym is A7X. The meaning is explained below. Avenged
7-Seven
X-time/fold
Thanks Zacky for coming up with the idea behind A7X!
How did Avenged Sevenfold get to the point of producing their own album?
Avenged Sevenfold, the album is a self-produced effort. While the band shared co-production credit on 2005’s million-selling City Of Evil with Mudrock, this new album is solely their responsibility — and they’re primed to accept it.
But attaining such stature didn’t arrive in an overnight jaunt. To the contrary, Avenged Sevenfold had been an integral part of the independent, underground rock scene years before breaking through on commercial radio. In fact, the Orange County, California-based act launched its career several years ago (they were barely out of high school) with the release of its debut in July 2001 of Sounding the Seventh Trumpet.
Van touring ensued, performing in tightly packed clubs, and sweating shoulder-to-shoulder on both national and international levels. Despite the truly D.I.Y. affair (which still found the fledgling act putting on an eye-opening, elaborate stage show), Avenged Sevenfold never offered anything less than a full-throttle set. The band released its second independent full-length in August 2003, Waking The Fallen, a couple years later, greatly expanding on its metal-based foundation and giving us a not-so-subtle nudge that something exciting was in the imminent forecast.
Our suspicions were confirmed a couple years later, with Avenged Sevenfold’s breakthrough 2005 Warner Bros. debut, City Of Evil, featuring the wildly popular single “Bat Country.” That was the turning point for the fearless, genre-bending quintet that, after years of clocking in on the independent level, had finally advanced towards a milestone they had been seeking throughout their careers.
A7X wrapped 18 months of relentless touring in October 2006 and immediately began writing Avenged Sevenfold. After the success of City Of Evil — where they proved they had truly captured the imagination of music fans of all shapes and sizes — they became the only band to headline Warped Tour and Ozzfest while simultaneously hitting Number One on MTV’s TRL. The natural question was whether the band would continue its creative odyssey or return to the formula that brought them such success on the last go-around. Thankfully, they continued their musical exploration without caving in to any outside influences.
For this self-titled release, the act returned to the garage at M. Shadows’ parents’ home where these high-school friends had penned every other song in their discography. The band sought to delve into genres and recording techniques they had discovered on the road. For instance, they wanted to incorporate the narrative lyrics and biting guitar tones they’d admired in country music, as well as the powerful bottom end of hip-hop they felt would only add to the power of their music and message.
“All those months on the bus we really weren’t finding new rock that was moving us,” says front man M. Shadows. “Instead, we were listening to everything from Toby Keith to T.I., and finding elements we could incorporate into what we were doing to make our next record more interesting to us.”
In the studio, Avenged Sevenfold enlisted engineers Fred Archambault and Dave Schiffman (System Of A Down, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers), and the team went to work.
The resulting sound and rhythm of Avenged Sevenfold is, in a word, eclectic. Yet it’s still trademark A7X. “‘Scream’ has a groove we really wanted to inject into this record,” says guitarist Synyster Gates. “And on ‘Lost,’ you can hear the influence melodic bands like NOFX have always had on our band.”
A7X composed the string sections, including the individual instrument orchestration, with the assistance of Marc Mann and Steve Bartek from Oingo Boingo (and who currently orchestrate for Danny Elfman). With the soaring strings in “Afterlife,” the haunting and theatrical performance of “A Little Piece Of Heaven,” or the gentle vocals of a child in “Unbound,” the band’s creative and varied approach is surprising. Percussionist Lenny Castro brought a dynamic to “Brompton Cocktail,” and noted pedal steel and banjo player Greg Leisz added country flair to the song “Dear God.” Yet as Gates adds, “it’s the dueling guitars, Shadows’ voice and the Rev’s brutality that make every one of the songs sound like Avenged Sevenfold.
Lyrically, Shadows was striving for something more personal on the new album. “I feel we all experience a certain inner conflict, the push and pull between how we think we should act, or want to act, and the temptations and human instincts that we often blame when we don’t end up being the person we want to be.”
In fact, the album’s first single, “Almost Easy,” focuses on more similar temptations. “Afterlife” addresses the notion of “memento mori,” or the need to remember that death may intervene before we have reconciled differences with friends or loved ones.
These guys worked their asses off making Avenged Sevenfold (enlisting studio legend Andy Wallace to mix the record), literally sweating every detail with the same (if not stronger) conviction they had years earlier in trying to prove themselves to the masses. But its best you understand what was really going on during the three months these five best friends were holed up making Avenged Sevenfold.
They were having the time of their lives!
A7X Tivia
-Avenged Sevenfold's name comes from Genesis Chapter 4 verse 15 of the Bible. Matt came up with the name. The verse is as follows: And the lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, Vengeance shall be taken on him Sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.
-July 15th,2008 the album "Waking the Fallen" went gold. This is awesome since the album only sold 3,000 copies the first week of its original release.
-In 2008 A7X has had so many problems with the management in the UK and in Europe that they do not plan on touring there until a new album is released in 2009.
-Dispite numerous requests from the bands fans to slow down due to illnesses, M. Shadows has been quoted as saying that the band expects some problems with illnesses and the occational problems that occure on tour but the band is not going to quit touring until they decide to do so!
-The bands least favorite video they have ever filmed was "The Beast and the Harlot" because of the smell of the makeup used on the extras.
-City of Evil appeared in Guitar world's list of 100 Greatest Guitar Albums of All times. The album was also recorded in Houston, TX.
-A7X won a Kerrang award in 2008 for Best album of the year.
-Jim Carroccio is the bands tour manager. He replaced Thor aka Kenny at the beginning of 2008.
-Dan "The Body" Abell is the bands assitant.
-Avenged Sevenfolds management is Larry Jacobson of The Collective Management Group.
-"Avenged Sevenfold" the album went gold September 23, 2008. The album also debuted at 4th place on the billboards top 100 list. Three of the songs on the album cracked the top five spot in the UK.
-The band was formed in 1999 while its members were still in high school.
-"Sounding the Seventh Trumpet" was recorded in 2001 by Good life Records when the band members were only 19 years old.
-When Synyster Gates joined the band, the intro song "To End The Rapture" was re-recorded with Gates playing and the album was re-released by Hopeless Records.
-"Waking the Fallen" was release 2 years later on August 26, 2003 in which Rolling Stones gave it a positive rating.
-June 7, 2005 "City of Evil" was released. The band was signed by Warner Brothers shortly before "City of Evil" was recorded. The album has sold in excess of 800,000 copies to date in the US alone.
-From The "City of Evil" album "Bat Country" hit the number 1 spot on U.S Mainstream Rock.
-The band recieved the 2006 MTV award for best new artist in a video for "Bat Country".
-A7X have left behind a trail of offended, shocked, and unimpressed music fans and musicians. At one stop on the '05 Warped tour concert goers messed with the bands rock star m.o, wearing home made t-shirts that read "A7X told us to bring girls"
-Matt Berry is in charge of their merch.
The story behind the Bat Country Video
Well we've had a lot of Hunter S. Thompson [enthusiasts] e-mail us and say they totally hate it. But we go to Vegas all the time and when we go there we party like it's the last day of the world. So we were writing the song and I was like, "Let's just have a desert vibe and let's just write about our own experiences and kind of base it off 'Fear and Loathing,' " and so we did that. And then Hunter died and then we talked to the Gonzo Trust [a group of three trustees who oversee Thompson's estate] and they were super cool about it. They're like, "Yeah, it's cool you guys are doing a song, all you have to do is send us two CDs and you can have our approval to use quotes and stuff from the movie." It just came about because the whole last record was very gothic-feeling and we wanted this record to have a lot of different aspects. There's the Danny Elfman vibe, there's the rock and roll vibe and we wanted to have that desert vibe and we felt "Fear and Loathing" was just the perfect thing. Driving down in 110 degree weather in a convertible Cadillac and you're just going to get screwed out of your mind as told by M. Shadows
Story behind the naming of "City of Evil"
Originally, we wrote ‘Beast And The Harlot’, the first track on the album, and lyrically it was about the fall of Babylon and it being called a city of evil. At the same time, Zacky was working on the artwork, which was a city with our bat character riding out of the city, so we decided to call it that because the album artwork looked like the city of evil burning. We had the song about Babylon as the first track, so we just called it City Of Evil.M. Shadows
Story behind the song on the Album "City of Evil" entitled "The Wicked end."
That originally started out with us wanting to do a thrash song and just go somewhere with it that we’ve never gone before. We’re all huge Danny Elfman fans, he did the Edward Scissorhands soundtrack, and whenever we do the introduction to our live show, we always have Edward Scissorhands playing. We wanted to do one of our own, so we wrote the score first, and then based the rest of the song around it. When you listen to Danny Elfman, he always has a boys’ choir, so we went to the label and asked if we could hire a boys choir and they said we could, so we just went with it. It was one of those things where we tried to branch out and do whatever we wanted.
The story behind the song off of the Album "City of Evil" entitled "Strength of the World"
We weren’t trying for a hardcore song, but it just came to me that maybe we could have a group thing in there. Just to throw a group vocal in the mix. We thought that it was a weird song to do it in, but we just decided to do it. It’s one of those things that had a real whiny vocal after it, so we wanted to have a real tough vocal before it, just to have the contrast. We weren’t trying to throw back the old school, we were just going crazy.
Everytime I Die Singer Keith Buckley describes glammy images as a form of "lying" and singled out A7X presentation as "a total front".
-Greg Pirciato of Math-Metal Titans-Dillinger Escape Plan have deemed A7X as a "terrrible band" and called the O.C. crew "assholes" and accusing them of the deadly sin of pride. Noting that "this scene is based on Humility".
-The guys never drink or take drugs the day of a show, don't party when they are recording, and never blow off important business appointments.
-The chorus to "Scream" and "Almost Easy" have a hip-hop beat under a metal top.
-The big metal deathbat that has been seen on stage with A7X is sarcastically nicknamed "Fluffy" because it is very sharp and has cut many people trying to put it up and take it down.
-The band originally toured in an 0ld white van. They nick named it the "Road Dog".
-The bands official tattoo artist is Adam Barton.
-In 2007A7X fans broke the barricade at singfest.
-In 2008 while touring Singapore Zacky, Syn, Rev, and Johnny preformed a song called Quack Quack. They created it during the flight over.
-During A7X's tour on Ozzfest the power went out in San Bernardino during the bands preformance. When the fans started chanting A7X and fires broke out, security was concerned that a riot would start before the power came back on. Instead of seeking refuge on their tour bus, the band stayed backstage in the heat just like the fans.
-In 2007 while touring in IndonesiaThe Rev, Syn, and Zacky went with some locals to a bar where they serve King Cobra. First the chef spend 30 minutes trying to catch the snake without being bitten then they drain the blood and cooked the meat. All 3 guys drank the blood mixed with some kind of alcohol and ate the meat. Rev said it was something that tasted bad and did absolutely nothing for them.
-No Avenged Sevenfold album has ever been released in Indonesia. Although most of the kids can't even speak English they know the lyrics to every song. The first time A7X went there touring they were sold out in Jakarta. This is a testiment to the internet at getting information out to these isolated areas. Most bands won't travel into places that their albums have never been released but A7X says fuck that we don't care so much about the money because CD's don't sell anymore. They just enjoy seeing the look an their fans faces.
-Unholy Confessions was the bands first video to air on Headbangers ball. It was on there continuely for many monthes.
-The band rocked out during their sound check to get added scenes to the Unholy confessions video.
-The video for Bat country was filmed in Vegas.
-The band liked the guy who was in Beast and the Harlot video.
-The band didn't like the actor known as D. Light in the Seize the Day video. They thought he was obnoxious.
-The actress who played in the Beast and the Harlot video is named Jeanine.
-The car used in the get away scene for Seize the day kept breaking down.
-Fat Mike of Nofx had this to say about A7X in an interview:
“They support Bush. Support the Iraq War. Wouldn’t accept a drink ’cause they have to play the next day, but tell everyone they party. And play to a f—ing DAT tape.” Rather than get angry with Mike, the band was crestfallen. “Their road manager is a friend of ours and he just said ‘dude, my guys are ruined. They love NOFX. They even used to cover ‘Linoleum’ every night. And then you f—ing rant about what posers they are and how they’re ruining rock and roll. It’s just, you ruined those guys,’” Mike recalls to NoiseCreep, sounding somewhat remorseful. “I didn’t mean to ruin them. You know, when I found out they were playing to pre-recorded music, I was like ‘that’s over the top. You guys are fucked.’”
Nofx is a joke band at best. Need I say more?
A7X Quotes about their band
"I think everyone can really play their instruments, so it just comes across like these guys practice all day. Ever since I knew [Avenged drummer] the Rev — which is when we were little kids — he was playing every Slayer song and every Pantera song in his room on the drums. And when you get a band [consisting of people who have] been trained as musicians or just practice their butts off, you're gonna get a band that can play. We wanna go out there and — call us image whores or whatever, but we like to put on a show, we want people to see a big show. We don't wanna go out there and just be like the normal dudes that just walked off the street and just played the show. You're there and you're paying money and that's what we love to do. We love to entertain." -M. shadows-
"We were just a group of friends and I met everyone in high school and we all just hit it off and had an idea of playing heavier music that had a new twist to it,’ Vengeance said. ‘Our goal was to always be true to ourselves and try and write stuff that we love." -Zacky V.-
"We had no expectations for "Sounding of the Seventh Trumpet", we were young and we wrote it in high school, and we definitely grew a lot and we had a ton of new ideas.‘We went back more to stuff we grew up loving. We started pulling out the Pantera and Metallica albums and realized that was the stuff that we really enjoyed and it would be fun to use our real influences instead of trying to be something different. "Waking the Fallen" came out exactly how we wanted and we are really happy about it. "-2003 interview with Zacky V.-
"We had no expectations for "Sounding of the Seventh Trumpet", we were young and we wrote it in high school, and we definitely grew a lot and we had a ton of new ideas.‘We went back more to stuff we grew up loving. We started pulling out the Pantera and Metallica albums and realized that was the stuff that we really enjoyed and it would be fun to use our real influences instead of trying to be something different. "Waking the Fallen" came out exactly how we wanted and we are really happy about it. "-2003 interview with Zacky V.-
"I think the most important thing to putting on a good show is to always mix things up. Sometimes we wear makeup; other times we don’t. The point is, you’ll never get the same Avenged show twice. I think it’s really important to be theatrical. I mean, look at Iron Maiden! "-Zacky V. 2009-
"We try to keep our personal lives to ourselves. Maybe in 10 years we’ll write a book. Everybody likes to talk about our partying, but I can guarantee we’re not shooting up heroin like Mötley Crüe. Sure, we have our own personal vices, but we just do our own thing and try to keep it private. But we always wake up at a certain time to prepare for the show, ’cause that’s the most important thing. Business comes first, but when that’s done, whatever happens, happens." -Synyster Gates 2009-
"We always write above our head and you can do a bunch of different takes and splice things together in the studio but live you have to nail it or else you’re a fraud [laugh]. And Avenged Sevenfold would hate to be ever fucking misconstrued as a fraud ‘cause we definitely go full-bore and put all our effort into recreating those songs live in their entirety just like you hear them on the album and I think we do a good job of it." -Synyster Gates 2008-
"We have that traditional classic sound that bands like Metallica and Megadeth paved the way for a while ago. That sound crosses over and the extreme metal doesn't. When we wrote this record it was because we love classic traditional metal and we just wanted to write a record that came straight from our influences."- M. Shadows referencing City of Evil-
Matt on the band being signed with Warner Bros.
"At first there were a lot of perks because there was more money. You can write the album and record it the way we wanted because we had 100% creative control and they would pay for everything. They also have lots of people working your record and they have a lot of old ways they like to break bands, but we’re not a band that’s going to break by the typical ways. We don’t want to break by Pure Volume or by the Internet and we definitely don’t want to break by throwing ourselves on the radio. We don’t consider ourselves one of those bands. We consider ourselves a band where the kids are going to get it, or they’re not. Pantera wasn’t on the radio and they grew from underground and had a great career. When you’re working with a major label, all they want to do is get you on the radio and we have to keep reminding them that we’re not the next My Chemical Romance, we’re a completely different band. We have to remind Warner Bros. that we’re not a radio band."
This site is a labor of love dedicated to the best band in existence, Avenged Sevenfold!
