walking upstream…
Avenged Sevenfold
photo: giada conti · cc by 2.0 ↗Avenged Sevenfold
sourcesWikipedia · Rolling Stone
Avenged Sevenfold formed in 1999 among Huntington Beach, California high schoolers steeped in hardcore and metalcore, a sound that hardened into something more classicist once Synyster Gates joined on lead guitar in 2002 and drummer Jimmy 'The Rev' Sullivan's virtuosic double-bass playing pushed the band toward arena-scaled heavy metal. 2003's 'Waking the Fallen' and the 2005 major-label breakthrough 'City of Evil' fused thrash riffing, gang vocals, and twin-guitar harmonies with radio-ready hooks, a sound M. Shadows has traced directly to 'the bands that made me and made this band' — Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera. The Rev's sudden death in 2009 reshaped the band; 2010's 'Nightmare,' completed partly from his unfinished parts, became their first number-one album, and Mike Portnoy and later Brooks Wackerman have since filled the drum chair.
the sound in question
2010
NightmareAvenged Sevenfold
walk the tributaries ↓
Metallica1980s–90s · Thrash metal / Heavy metal
M. Shadows has named Metallica, alongside Megadeth and Guns N' Roses, as bands that 'made me and made this band kind of what it is.' When the band brought in drummer Arin Ilejay, they handed him Metallica's 'Master of Puppets' as required listening, explaining they needed to 'quickly get him acquainted' with the thrash records that defined their sense of what heavy metal precision should sound like.
listen: upstream & heresource: Metal Injection ↗
1986
Master of PuppetsMetallica
2003
Unholy ConfessionsAvenged Sevenfold
listen forSet 'Master of Puppets' against 'Unholy Confessions' — both drive a low, palm-muted riff at a relentless, mechanically tight tempo, with the rhythm section locking into the same galloping, start-stop precision before a squealing lead breaks the pattern open.
Pantera1990s · Groove metal / Thrash metal / Heavy metal
M. Shadows has called Pantera's 'Far Beyond Driven' his favorite Pantera record, praising the album's 'oomph that kicked it over the edge and just pure aggression,' and singled out a Dimebag Darrell solo on it as 'probably the greatest solo that Dimebag ever did.' The band told drummer Arin Ilejay that when they talk about 'groove metal,' they mean Pantera specifically, and gave him 'Far Beyond Driven' as homework alongside Metallica.
listen: upstream & heresource: Metal Injection ↗
1992
WalkPantera
2005
Beast and the HarlotAvenged Sevenfold
listen forCompare 'Walk' with 'Beast and the Harlot' — both stomp on a syncopated, mid-tempo groove riff punctuated by pinch-harmonic squeals, favoring a heavy, deliberate chug over the flat-out speed of straight thrash.
Iron Maiden1980s · Heavy metal / Hard rock / New wave of British heavy metal
M. Shadows has said Iron Maiden's 'The Number of the Beast' 'changed everything for me,' pointing specifically to the songwriting and the record's dueling twin-guitar lines, which he brought to his own bandmates as a model worth chasing. Wikipedia's account of the band likewise places Iron Maiden alongside Judas Priest and Metallica as the core of the '80s-metal dynamic' underpinning Avenged Sevenfold's sound.
listen: upstream & here
1982
The Number of the BeastIron Maiden
2005
Bat CountryAvenged Sevenfold
listen forPlay 'The Number of the Beast' next to 'Bat Country' — both open on a harmonized, twin-lead guitar figure played in tight unison before the verse locks into a galloping rhythm, the same New Wave of British Heavy Metal device translated into a 2000s arena-rock chorus.