they are in my heart part 2 - avenged sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold

* Background information
Origin Huntington Beach, California, USA
Genres Hard rock, heavy metal, metalcore (early)
Years active 1999–present
Labels Good Life, Hopeless, Warner Bros.
Associated acts
Pinkly Smooth, Suburban Legends, Brian Haner, Sr., Dream Theater, Confide
Website avengedsevenfold.com
Members:
M. Shadows
Zacky Vengeance
Synyster Gates
Johnny Christ
Past members:
The Rev
Dameon Ash
Justin Sane
Matt Wendt

Avenged Sevenfold is an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California.
Formed in 1999, the group consists of vocalist M. Shadows,
lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky
Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ. They are known for their diverse heavy metal sound, dramatic
imagery in album covers and t-shirts and their fiercely loyal fans.
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 sound.
The band continued to explore new sounds with theirself-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 and released and toured in support of their fifth album
Nightmare in 2010 which debuted on the top spot of the Billboard 200, their first number one debut.
To date, Avenged Sevenfold has
released fivestudio albums, one live album/compilation/DVD, and eighteen singles and sold more
than four million album worldwide. The band has received much credit for their
worldwide mainstream success,
considered a leader of theNew Wave of American Heavy Metal
and were featured as second place onUltimate Guitar's Top Ten Bands of the Decade.

* Musical style
Avenged Sevenfold's material spans multiple genres and has evolved over the band's entire career. Initially, the band's debut album Sounding the Seventh
Trumpet consisted almost entirely of metalcore sound;
however, there were several deviations to this genre, most
notably in "Streets" which adopts a punk style and "Warmness on the Soul," which is a piano-oriented ballad. On Waking
the Fallen, the band displayed the contemporary metalcore style
once more, but added more clean vocals as well as more mature and intricate musical
elements. In the band's DVD All Excess, producer Andrew
Mudrock explained this transition: "When I met the band after Sounding the Seventh
Trumpet had come out before they had recorded Waking the
Fallen, M. Shadows said to me 'This record is screaming. The record we want to make is going
to be half-screaming half-singing. I don't want to scream anymore. And the record after that is going to be all singing. On City of Evil, Avenged Sevenfold's third album, the band
chose to abandon the metalcore genre, developing a morehard rock style. Avenged Sevenfold's
self-titled album, again, consists
of several deviations to less consistent genres and styles
from the album's main hard rock
andheavy metal songs, most notably in "Dear God", which
adopts a country style and "A Little Piece of Heaven", which is
circled within the influence of Broadway show tunes, using
primarily brass instruments and
stringed orchestra to take over most of the role of the lead and
rhythm guitar. Nightmare contains further deviations,
including a piano ballad called "Fiction" and a brief return to
their metalcore roots on "God Hates Us". The band has changed
considerably since their first album, in which during that time they have been characterized as
a heavy band with ascreamed and growled vocal style
combined with clean vocals, chugging guitar riffs and
breakdowns that one can expect from the metalcore genre.

* Influences
The band has cited bands such as Bad Religion, Guns N' Roses, Iron Maiden, Pantera, Dream Theater, Metallica, NOFX, Alice in Chains, Black Flag, Corrosion of Conformity, The Misfits, Slayer, The Vandals, Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Deftones, and AFI as their artistic influences.

* Band members
The band members occasionally
play instruments other than their
primary instruments listed below.

Current members
M. Shadows – lead vocals (1999–present)
Zacky Vengeance – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1999–present)
Synyster Gates – lead guitar, backing vocals (2000–present)
Johnny Christ – bass, backing vocals (2003–present)
Former members
The Rev – drums, vocals (1999–2009)
Matt Wendt – bass (1999–2000)
Justin Sane – bass (2000–2002)
Dameon Ash – bass (2002–2003)
Session and touring members
Mike Portnoy – drums (2010)
Arin Ilejay – drums (2011– present)

* discography
Studio albums
Sounding the Seventh Trumpet
(2001)
Waking the Fallen (2003)
City of Evil (2005)
Avenged Sevenfold (2007)
Nightmare (2010)