Avenged Sevenfold Tickets : Avenged Sevenfold Are Known For Their Diverse Heavy Metal Sound

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 their self-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 five studio 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 and were featured as second place on Ultimate Guitar's Top Ten Bands of the Decade.

In January 2009, M. Shadows confirmed that the band was writing the follow-up to their self-titled fourth album within the upcoming months. They also announced that they will be playing at Rock on the Range, from May 16/17, 2009. On April 16, they performed a version of Guns N' Roses' "It's So Easy" onstage with Slash, at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles.M. Shadows was featured on Slash's debut solo album Slash in the song "Nothing to Say". They announced that they plan to start writing in June 2009 and recording in October 2009.

On December 28, 2009, drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan was found dead at his home at the age of 28.Autopsy results were inconclusive, but on June 9, 2010, the cause of death was revealed to have been an "acute polydrug intoxication due to combined effects of Oxycodone, Oxymorphone, Diazepam/Nordiazepam and ethanol".

In a statement by the band, they expressed their grief over the passing of The Rev and and later posted a message from Sullivan's family which expressed their gratitude to his fans for their support.The band members admitted in a number of interviews that they considered disbanding at this point of time. However, on February 17, 2010, Avenged Sevenfold stated that they had entered the studio, along with now-former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, to drum for the record, in place of the Rev.

The single "Nightmare" was digitally released on May 18, 2010. A preview for the song was released on May 6, 2010 on Amazon.com, but was removed soon after for unknown reasons. Mixing for the album had been completed in New York City, and Nightmare was finally released worldwide on July 27, 2010.It met with mixed to positive reviews from music critics but was well received by the fans. Nightmare beat sales projections easily, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200 with sales of 163,000 units in its first week.

On December 16, 2010, Portnoy announced via Facebook that he would no longer be working with Avenged Sevenfold.The band posted a statement on their website on December 17, 2010 stating that Mike Portnoy will not be their replacement for The Rev. On January 20, 2011, Avenged Sevenfold announced via Facebook that former Confide drummer Arin Ilejay will tour with them starting this year. Whether or not he will be joining the band on a permanent basis has not been decided yet.

In May 2011, it was confirmed that the band had written a new song to be included in the Escalation DLC pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops.The song is the first time developers Treyarch have commissioned an outside band to contribute a song since the franchise began. The song, titled "Not Ready to Die", was released on iTunes on May 2, 2011.