We Answer the Most Searched Questions About Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold spent the previous couple of years fairly low-profile, however now that they’ve dropped a brand new tune and have an album on the approach, there’s fairly a little bit of buzz round them once more.

The band’s been by way of a whole lot of modifications because it shaped in 1999, from their music fashion, to band members and political views. So we determined to spherical up the most-frequently searched questions on Avenged Sevenfold, and do our greatest to reply them for you.

We’ll prevent from the apparent ones: the band is at the moment made up of M. Shadows, Synyster Gates, Zacky Vengeance, Johnny Christ and Brooks Wackerman, and sure, they’re nonetheless collectively. They even have a few performances scheduled all through the 12 months, which you will get tickets for right here.

If you already knew the solutions to some or all of those, then nice — you are an excellent fan. But for individuals who are needing a little bit of a lesson on the band’s background, or who simply merely need to see what persons are most interested in, then carry on scrolling.

READ MORE: The 32 Songs Avenged Sevenfold Have Never Played Live

Are Avenged Sevenfold Christian/Are Avenged Sevenfold Religious?

These had been two highly-searched questions, so we determined to mix them into one class in an effort to deal with it. Because of a few of the biblical themes and references all through Avenged Sevenfold’s music, it is comprehensible that folks would query if they are a “Christian band” or if the members themselves are non secular.

Their band identify additionally refers to a passage in the biblical ebook of Genesis that reads, “But the Lord said to him, ‘Therefore whoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.'” However, the reply to each could be no. M. Shadows has addressed the topic many instances in interviews.

“Absolutely not. I don’t believe in those things. I try not to get into that because a lot of our fans are Christians and a lot aren’t,” the singer informed San Antonio Current a number of years in the past. “I have my own beliefs, but I don’t believe in any kind of religion that we have nowadays. But we’re definitely not a Christian band.”

Arin Ilejay, who performed drums for the band from 2013 to 2015, nevertheless, performed in a Los Angeles-based Christian band previous to becoming a member of Avenged.

Are Avenged Sevenfold Veterans?

This query is probably going searched so much as a result of Avenged Sevenfold have outwardly supported the U.S. army a number of instances. They carried out reveals for U.S. troops primarily based in Iraq and Kuwait in November of 2010, however nobody in the band is definitely a army veteran.

“I think everyone in the band has had someone that’s served in their family. Both of my grandfathers were in the military. But I also have a lot of friends who, out of high school, went into the Navy, some went into the Marines, some went into the Army,” Shadows informed Revolver. “I think they appreciated just the fact that we even came over there. Everyone was really cool. I think it’s very important that we support them, because I’m not putting myself in front of a bullet every day. And you’re not. But they are.”

In early February, the rockers additionally teamed up with the Four Corners Motorcycle Rally for a sweepstakes, and donations went towards the Building Homes for Heroes group, which advantages U.S. veterans.

Are Avenged Sevenfold Conservative?

In the earlier days of the band, they had been clear about their conservative views, and a few of their lyrics implied they had been as nicely — reminiscent of in the tune “Critical Acclaim,” for instance.

“Most people know we’re kind of one of the only bands around right now that will admit that we’re Republican,” Shadows informed Newsday again in 2006 [via Blabbermouth]. “When we went on the Warped Tour last year — all of those bands, they’re not only anti-war, they’re anti-everything our country stands for. We were like, ‘[Expletive] this.’ We’re going to wear our America shirts.”

However, years later, the frontman admitted that the members of the band had began to shift their views a bit, and in interviews he is expressed his assist for insurance policies reminiscent of stricter gun management legal guidelines, and he wrote an open letter in June of 2020 explaining his stance on the Black Lives Matter motion.

“I am aware that in the past Avenged has antagonized with some of our lyrics and imagery. We have also used confederate flags in our artwork while paying tribute to artists we grew up listening to or simply trying to start controversy,” he wrote. “I’m sure we will be called out, and rightfully so, by people reading this. No excuses. But everyone grows up at some point, and I feel grateful that we have an audience that has allowed us to evolve with them.”

Why Did Avenged Sevenfold Stop Screaming?

M. Shadows did fairly a little bit of screaming all through Avenged’s first two albums, 2002’s Sounding the Seventh Trumpet and 2003’s Waking the Fallen. However, once they unveiled their third launch City of Evil two years later, the singer’s vocal fashion was noticeably completely different.

In a 2006 interview with Launch Radio Network [via Blabbermouth], he stated that he’d already deliberate on singing otherwise on the new album, however having a minor throat surgical procedure to deal with a blood vessel put the nail in the coffin for the screaming, per his physician’s recommendation.

“It’s one of those things, we don’t listen to bands that scream. I did when I was in high school and I kind of grew out of it,” he informed the San Antonio Current in 2013. “Maybe I’ll listen to one or two. I’d rather listen to the Iron Maidens and Metallicas of the world than the death metal bands. For me, it doesn’t make sense.”

How Did The Rev Die?

The query is commonly phrased as, “How did the Avenged Sevenfold drummer die,” and that might be referring to Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. The Rev was one among the founding members of Avenged Sevenfold, and was their drummer from its formation in 1999 till his demise 10 years later. He performed on their first 4 studio albums, and posthumously appeared on 2010’s Nightmare as nicely.

In December of 2009, The Rev was discovered lifeless in his California house. He was 28 years outdated.

“It is with great sadness and heavy hearts that we tell you of the passing today of Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan,” Avenged wrote in a press release. “Jimmy was not only one of the world’s best drummers, but more importantly he was our best friend and brother. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jimmy’s family and we hope that you will respect their privacy during this difficult time.”

According to Rolling Stone, his death was later ruled an accidental overdose. He had prescription drugs and alcohol in his system, and had a pre-existing heart condition called cardiomegaly, also known as an “enlarged coronary heart.” The coroner said that the “important situation” may have played a part in his death as well.

Why Did Avenged Sevenfold Fire Arin Ilejay?

Arin Ilejay joined Avenged in 2011 and played on their 2013 album Hail to the King, but his time in the band was rather short-lived. The band issued a statement in July of 2015 saying that they were moving forward without Ilejay as their drummer, adding that they felt they needed to move in a different direction creatively.

“I was totally shocked and scared out of my mind when Synyster Gates called to let me go,” Ilejay recalled to Rolling Stone [via Metal Hammer]. “I was like, ‘Oh my God – my wife is about to have a baby. How am I going to support my family now?’”

Fortunately for Ilejay, he was offered a position in the band Islander shortly after.

“Arin obtained an increasing number of distanced as time went on. It’s form of like everybody goes by way of their honeymoon interval and it is all nice, however then you definately begin realizing that we’re 4 guys which have a approach we do issues after which there’s another person that simply does not actually match into that in any respect,” Shadows later told the That’s Not Metal podcast [via Ultimate Guitar].

“And as good of a man as he’s, there have been only a bunch of issues that did not signify us in any respect, and you’ll’t have that, particularly after we’ve labored for thus lengthy and so onerous at what we do. And the very last thing we care about is our public notion of what we should always do with our lives.”

Are Avenged Sevenfold Metal?

We’ll end things with this one, because it’s a question that seems to be commonly asked about a lot of bands in the rock and metal world. Where exactly is the line between rock and metal? It’s a polarizing topic, but we’ll try to simplify this one as best as possible. They were actually considered a hardcore band early on, but disassociated themselves from the scene rather quickly because they wanted to write more melodic material.

“If somebody calls us a hardcore band we’re identical to, ‘Oh… whatever. Are you gonna listen to Hatebreed or are you gonna listen to us?’ Most fucking hardcore bands need to be metallic bands anyway however they only can’t play nicely sufficient,” Shadows told Metal Hammer.

Though they may have diverted from the hardcore sound, the vocal style that Shadows used throughout the band’s earliest material is not a “rock” vocal style by any means. Their sound back then could be more easily described as metalcore, with some punk undertones laced throughout.

Even as they evolved their sound over the next few albums and Shadows started singing, their music still had roots in metal — but more traditional. Their most recent records, though, have a much more experimental and progressive feel to them. So they’ve ultimately morphed a lot throughout their existence, but underneath it all, we’d still consider them a metal band.