Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold are a heavy metal quintet from Huntington Beach, California that have spent over two decades as one of the genre’s biggest mainstream crossover acts.

They’ve earned five certified platinum albums, four Billboard Hot 100-charting singles and nearly three billion YouTube streams. Formed in 1999, the band adopted their stage names M. Shadows, Zacky Vengeance, The Rev and Synyster Gates ahead of their 2001 debut album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet.

It wasn’t until the band added bassist Johnny Christ and transitioned to a more progressive metal sound for their 2003 follow-up Waking the Fallen that they began to resemble the uninhibited, creative force that fans recognize today. A7X’s 2005 major label debut City of Evil propelled the band to a wider audience behind the breakout single “Bat Country,” and their 2007 self-titled album built on those gains with a No. 4 debut on the Billboard 200.

Following the death of drummer The Rev in 2009, Avenged Sevenfold regrouped for 2010’s Nightmare, which topped the Billboard 200 and hosted their highest Hot 100 hit “Nightmare” as well as the touching tribute “So Far Away,” which became their first No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart. 2013’s Hail to the King also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and was followed by 2016’s The Stage, which garnered the band’s first Grammy nomination in the Best Rock Song category for its title track. In 2023, Avenged Sevenfold came roaring back after five years off the road with Life Is but a Dream…