Avenged Sevenfold Biography

It’s not always recognized in today’s “I want it all now” world, but patience is a virtue. And Huntington Beach, California rockers Avenged Sevenfold are being rewarded for remembering that golden rule. After releasing two highly successful albums on an indie label (Sounding The Seventh Trumpet and Waking The Fallen), the quintet is set to unleash its major label debut, City Of Evil, on Warner Bros. Records. City Of Evil, co-produced by Avenged Sevenfold, reunites the group with producer Mudrock (Waking The Fall).

“We’re at the point now where we’ve come into our own,” vocalist M. Shadows says of the ambitious City Of Evil, an 11-song collection that gives a middle finger to the idea of categorization, bridging the sonic guitar assault of Iron Maiden with the frenetic pace of Bad Religion and the musicianship of Dream Theater. “In Southern California you’re really brought up in the whole punk world. At the same time, we were growing up listening to Pantera, Megadeath, Metallica and Slayer records,” Shadows recalls. “So then you think, ‘I want to play in that kind of band, but I want to play in this kind of band.’ Then you pass that point and all of a sudden you’re just writing music and it comes out naturally. But that’s what happens cause of all the different influences we have. And we’re definitely not afraid to put anything in our songs if we think it calls for it.”

Yes, Avenged Sevenfold can rock, as the band recently did at a sold-out show at Hollywood’s Music Box Theater, where they turned the intensity of the new tunes up from 11 to about a 20, but these are musicians as well. However, as the group evidenced during the orchestral interlude in “The Wicked End,” a perfect metal moment live complemented by a boys choir and 14-piece string section, Avenged Sevenfold, in the tradition of Zeppelin, Queen, and Guns ‘N’ Roses’ “November Rain,” meld their intensity with a musical daring their hard rock forefathers would be proud of.

Those looking primarily for a cathartic release live, as so many of the kids moshing their brains out at the Music Box were, need only turn to the ferocious energy of “Bat Country,” a song written for Hunter S. Thompson about the band’s own adventures in Vegas, and the Maiden-esque guitar and Shadows’ perfect caterwaul of the line “city of evil” (where the album’s title stems from) in the opening “Beast & The Harlot.”

And while Avenged, whose influences range from Maiden, Pantera, and Guns ‘N’ Roses (Shadows calls Use Your Illusions 1 and 2 his favorite albums of all time) to Billy Joel, Queen, and Elvis Costello, may not be your typical hard rock band musically, they can hang with the best of them. Epic nights of late night fun have followed this band around the country, and it’s something all of the members freely acknowledge. They like to party, and they like to drink: and plenty. Additionally, and fitting with their chosen lifestyle, the members of Avenged could write the A7X equivalent of the Zagut guide to strip clubs in America.

“Strippers and bands have this bond,” Vengeance says. “They totally do. The band walks in and it’s like special treatment,” Shadows adds. So, what makes a good strip club? “I like strip clubs that are out of control,” he says, citing Vegas, New York and New Orleans (“It’s fucking Bourbon Street. It better be crazy,” he says) as home to some of the better establishments they’ve frequented.

Reflecting the complex personalities though that can lead a hard rock band to throw in a beautiful Flamenco guitar solo near the end of the new album’s savage “Sidewinder,” Avenged Sevenfold is far from just a party band, and it shows on City Of Evil. The album is bursting with displays of their virtuoso musicianship, from the intricate tempo changes of “Burn It Down” to the tender acoustic intro into a Spaghetti Western mixed with classical melody that provides the calm before the storm in the savage “Strength Of The World.”

The group has learned a great deal having spent the last three summers as part of the Warped tour. Shadows got some valuable advice from Fat Mike of NOFX, besides how to play Texas Hold ‘Em. “He’s like, ‘You know what, if you do this stuff long enough, you gotta fucking have fun. If you can’t have fun on tour then you’ll never last,’” Shadows recalls. “I think that’s a really important thing.”

Additionally, the quintet, which started on a Warped side stage, graduated to the second stage, and then made the move last year to main stage, a spot they’ll be returning to this year, learned a lot by the gradual progression. “We’ve seen bands that we started out with that got a little bit of a head start or an early break and they’re done. We’ve learned so much more doing it from the ground up. We’ve got so many more stories than other bands will have; so many more good times, bad times. It has made us stronger as a band too,” Vengeance says.

Hard work is what also accounts for the band’s fiercely loyal following, according to Shadows. “It’s rewarding ‘cause you know you have this really solid core fan base that has been through a lot and they believe in the band now as more than a band, it’s like a lifestyle,” he says. “If anything happens we don’t ever fall, it’s like they’re holding us up. We’re not on the radio, but everywhere we go we always have this rabid group of fans. We would’ve never had that if we had some lucky break and just jumped to the point we’re at now. I hope it gradually keeps going up. The slower you go the more I think it builds underneath you and we’re grateful for that. They can’t just get pulled out from underneath us. There’s nothing you can grab to pull; it’s fans that love that band. So, it’s very gratifying to be at this place now.”

Source: http://www.avengedsevenfold.com

Disorderly Conduct For avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold are flag-waving, former high school delinquents looking for the good life

He swears it's in check now, but Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows had such serious anger-management problems as a kid that he was kicked out of two different Huntington Beach, California, schools. The first time was for smashing a woman's car windows after a sixth-grade pizza party. The second, in seventh grade, ended with the mysterious death of the school principal.

As Shadows (real name Matt Sanders) tells the story, he'd been slammed by the principal for leaning on a newly planted tree on school grounds. What really lit his fuse, though, was when the principal called Shadows a "punk" -- and not as in "punk rocker." That night, Shadows returned to the campus and ripped up every new tree. Someone ratted him out, but before he could be punished, the principal keeled over from heart failure. "He'd been a big steroid user, but they blamed me and kicked me out," says Shadows. "After that, everyone said I was 'the kid that killed the principal.' "

Six feet two and all muscle, Shadows cuts an intimidating figure, but these days he's found a less destructive, and more profitable, outlet for his rage. Avenged Sevenfold -- the goth-metal band Shadows leads, along with guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer the Reverend -- were the hottest act on last summer's Warped Tour. Their major-label debut, City of Evil, is tunefully pummeling thrash, full of songs about demons and harlots, as if Metallica were starring in a cartoony horror movie.

A7X thrive on their contradictions: Their name is biblical (it comes from the promise that Cain's slaying of Abel will be avenged seven times over), yet their breakthrough video for "Bat Country" is a bacchanalian romp inspired by Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Their politics are pretty conservative, but they are just as staunch in their belief that "the good life" includes access to large supplies of strippers, sports cars and controlled substances. In fact, they are bent on reviving the metal excess of their beloved Guns n' Roses.

The band members -- who range in age from twenty-one to twenty-four and have known each other since childhood -- grew up middle-class in Huntington Beach. For years, they were downwardly mobile -- not long ago they were touring in a van and eating ramen noodles without water, "just for a change of texture," says Gates. But things have turned around in the past year, and the guys are unapologetically gleeful. "We enjoy the finer things in life," says Gates. "We want money. We want nice cars. We want beautiful women."

"Only difference is," adds Vengeance, "we're not afraid to admit it."

That's not the only difference between Avenged Sevenfold and their Warped Tour peers. There's also their politics. Among the T-shirts they sell on tour is one with the A7X skull-and-bat-wings logo in front of an American flag, above which reads LOVE IT OR DIE. Gates is a gun collector who spends some of his downtime at a shooting range. "We're an American band, and we take pride in that," says Shadows. "A lot of kids are anti-America for no reason, and they live in the best country in the world."

Like the group's two previous indie releases, City of Evil incorporates epic guitar solos, a bowel-rumbling bottom end and the gloomy imagery of vintage British metal like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. The songs clock in, on average, upwards of six minutes.

"We're bringing back long songs," says Shadows, noting that Alice in Chains had six-minute songs too. And that's not all the bands share: Shadows works with Ron Anderson, vocal coach for the late Alice frontman Layne Staley, one of his idols. Following A7X's last album, Waking the Fallen, Shadows required surgery on his vocal cords for a broken blood vessel. Once he recovered, he started vocal training with Anderson.

"At first, I was like, 'Whatever,'" says Shadows. "But then I find out he's done Axl [Rose] and Chris Cornell and Kylie [Minogue] and Enrique Iglesias." Shadows worked with Anderson six days a week leading up to the recording of City of Evil. "I started using all my money from my advance," Shadows says. "He saved my life, vocally." Even on tour, the singer connects with Anderson for online or phone lessons every couple of days.

His bandmates may enjoy their indulgences, but Shadows has only one addiction: self-discipline. Between his vocal exercises and his regular workout, he follows a strict throat-friendly diet that excludes dairy, caffeine, spicy foods and even -- gasp! -- alcohol. "As soon as I start gaining any weight or looking different, I flip out," he says. "I'm just really competitive. I hate losing more than anything. So I definitely stick to my regimen, which is good because it keeps me on the straight and narrow. The other guys are pretty much out of their minds."

Though things are fairly tame in San Diego on the first night of their current headlining tour, Avenged Sevenfold claim that the "Bat Country" clip is simply a glamorized version of their real lives. "Going crazy in Vegas, parties, gambling, strip clubs -- we do all those things," says Gates.

"If a girl wants to show a band her tits," Vengeance chimes in, "she's having a good time. She's in the moment."

"Yeah, we're not gonna say, 'Stop! Don't do that!'" says Shadows, his diamond-encrusted fake teeth catching the light as he smiles. "That stuff has become so taboo. It didn't used to be that way. We love rock & roll from the late Eighties and early Nineties. We love the rock stars, and all the shit that goes with it. We're trying to take what we know from that era, bypass this whole anti-rock-star era and take people into the next one."