Avenged Sevenfold is an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band consists of vocalist M. Shadows, lead guitarist Synyster Gates, rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance, and bassist Johnny Christ.
Avenged Sevenfold emerged with a metalcore sound on their debut Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, which included primarily screamed vocals. The band changed their style on their third album and first major label release, City of Evil, which features more melodic vocals and power ballads. The band continued to explore new sounds with their self titled release and enjoyed continued mainstream success before their drummer, James "The Rev" Sullivan, died of heart disease and combined effect of drugs and alcohol in his body in 2009. Despite his death, the band continued on with help of then 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, a first for the band.
To date, Avenged Sevenfold has released five studio albums, one live album/compilation/DVD, and sixteen singles. The band themselves have received much credit for their worldwide mainstream success and were most notably proclaimed as one of the leaders and key bands in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal and were featured as second place on Ultimate Guitar's Top Ten Bands of the Decade.
