Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold emerged among the early 21st century’s most commercially viable and radio-friendly metalcore acts, blending mosh-pit-ready hardcore, progressive-leaning alt-metal, and anthemic hard rock into a broad sonic palette. The group navigated both stylistic reinventions and lineup shifts while climbing the charts. As participants in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal, they issued their debut, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, in 2001 and initially clung to a strict metalcore identity before shifting toward a modern-rock and heavy-metal emphasis on City of Evil in 2005. Mainstream visibility arrived with their fourth album, the self-titled set released in 2007; subsequent releases Nightmare in 2010 and Hail to the King in 2013 earned gold and platinum certifications, respectively, while the 2016 avant-garde-leaning The Stage secured a Grammy nomination. After a seven-year hiatus, the band returned with the existential-crisis-inspired prog-metal work Life Is But a Dream… in 2023.

Still enrolled at Huntington Beach high schools, the five future members—M. Shadows on vocals, Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates on guitar, the Reverend on drums, and Johnny Christ on bass—formed Avenged Sevenfold in 1999. Their aggressive fusion of metal, hard rock, and punk-pop quickly drew attention. The official debut arrived in July 2001 via Goodlife Records with Sounding the Seventh Trumpet; two years later they moved to Hopeless for Waking the Fallen. Warner Bros. signed the band and issued City of Evil in June 2005, which peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Top 200 buoyed by the Top Ten single “Bat Country.” Heavy MTV and Fuse rotation, combined with live appearances, elevated their profile, culminating in a Best New Artist win at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards despite their prior releases.

Rising demand prompted cancellation of fall 2006 tour dates so the group could record a fourth studio album. The self-produced, self-titled effort arrived in October 2007 with a rawer edge, debuting at number four on the Billboard Top 200 and spawning the radio single “Almost Easy.” Three tracks reached the U.K. rock Top Five, and Avenged Sevenfold supported the release on the Taste of Chaos tour. September 2008 brought the concert film and album Live in the LBC and Diamonds in the Rough, recorded in Long Beach. In 2009 the band announced plans for its next studio record, yet drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan died that year at age 28. Nightmare followed in 2010 with temporary replacement Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater. The group contributed “Carry On” to the 2011 video-game soundtrack Call of Duty: Black Ops before issuing Hail to the King in 2013, which topped the Billboard 200 with new drummer Arin Ilejay of Confide.

Citing creative differences, Ilejay departed soon after; Brooks Wackerman, formerly of Mass Mental and Bad Religion, took over the drum chair for what was initially titled Voltaic Oceans. The project surfaced without advance promotion under the name The Stage in October 2016, preceded by a live-streamed 360-degree 3-D performance atop Hollywood’s Capitol Records building. The band’s longest album to date, it was framed as a concept record addressing artificial intelligence; its sixteen-minute closer “Exist” featured spoken-word narration by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Additional singles appeared in 2017, among them a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By.” “Mad Hatter” arrived in September 2018 as part of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 soundtrack. January 2020 saw the previously unreleased Hail to the King track “Set Me Free” surface on a reissue of Live in the LBC and Diamonds in the Rough. Drawing inspiration from hallucinogens and Albert Camus’s philosophy, Life Is But a Dream… marked the longest interval between Avenged Sevenfold studio albums when it appeared in 2023.