Avenged Sevenfold by Zep



History
The band formed when the members were in high school. Their first album was titled Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, and was recorded when the band members were eighteen years old. Their follow-up album was entitled Waking the Fallen, which received a positive rating in Rolling Stone magazine.

City of Evil, released on June 7, 2005, strays from metalcore, and adds a more "pop rock" sound with obvious influences ranging from various bands. Although the band have been labeled metal, metalcore and hard rock in many publications, the band themselves claim that they are a "metal" band and have no musical similarities to metalcore in any way although this is heavily debated by their peers. During the recording of City of Evil, M. Shadows' vocal stylings have changed more to focus on melodic singing than on hardcore screaming, because the band decided to pursue a different musical career, and leave a genre that they said was "dying". The proof that this movement was right is the award for Best New Artist in a Video at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, as the underdog of a group that included bands such as Panic! at the Disco and James Blunt.

The band's name is an alleged reference to the book of Genesis in the Bible and the story of Cain and Abel, where Cain is punished to live in exile, alone and miserable. Anyone who relieved Cain of his misery by killing him would be "avenged in sevenfold," or punished in a way that is seven times worse than Cain's punishment. The title of Avenged Sevenfold's song "Chapter Four" references Genesis IV, the chapter of the Bible in which the story of Cain and Abel takes place. The song's subject also appears to be this story. Beast and the Harlot, yet another song derived from the Bible, comes from the book of Revelation and refers to the punishment of Babylon and the destruction of Pagan nations. Although the band's title and members' stage names make obvious references to religion, Shadows stated in an interview that they are "not really religious at all."

Their song "Blinded in Chains" was used in the soundtrack for the video game Need for Speed: Most Wanted. Another song, "Bat Country," was used in the soundtracks for SSX on Tour, NHL 06 and Madden 06, following in the footsteps of "Chapter Four" which had also been on the soundtrack for NHL 2004, Madden 2004 and NASCAR Thunder 2004. The song "Beast and the Harlot" was in the soundtrack for Burnout Revenge. All the above games, not coincidentally, are produced by various divisions of Electronic Arts.

During recent tours (Coheed and Cambria spring 2006 tour and Ozzfest 2006), Avenged Sevenfold have been performing the song "Walk", originally by Pantera, as part of a tribute to the late "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott.

Recently at the MTV Video Music Awards, Avenged Sevenfold received the award for best new artist. They took the award over several other artists including; Angels and Airwaves, Panic at the Disco, Rihanna, and James Blunt.

Although Avenged Sevenfold have claimed that they are trying to get away from the metalcore movement, they will be touring with metalcore act Bleeding Through this fall.[1]


Band members
M. Shadows (1999-Present) (Matthew Charles Sanders) — Lead Vocals
Synyster Gates (2001-Present) (Brian Elwin Haner, Jr.) — Lead Guitars, Back up Vocals
Zacky Vengeance (1999-Present) (Zachary Johnathan Baker) — Rhythm Guitars, Back up Vocals
Johnny Christ (2002-Present) (Johnathan Lewis Seward) — Bass (not to be confused with John Christ of Danzig)
The Rev "The Reverend Tholomew Plague" (1999-Present) (Jimmy Owen Sullivan) — Drums, Back up Vocals

Former band members
Justin Sane (1999-2001) — Bass guitar (not to be confused with Justin Sane of Anti-Flag)
Daemon Ash (2001-2002) — Bass guitar

Equipment

Synyster Gates
Uses Schecter guitars:
Schecter Syn Custom
Schecter C-1 FR (white with dot inlays)
C-1 FR Hellraiser Avenger
Syn Custom Avenger Models
Bogner Uberscall head and 4x12 cab...but are moving to Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifiers because of issues with Bogner
Ernie Ball Slinky Top Heavy Bottom Strings

Zacky Vengeance
Uses Schecter guitars:
S-1 Elite
S-1 Regular
S-1 Blackjack
Vengeance Custom S-1 Models
Both Zacky and Syn have been seen using PT and Banshee models on special occasions


Johnny Christ
Uses Ernie Ball basses
Musicman Sterling

The Rev
Uses DW drums
8 piece drum kit including two bass drums
Uses Sabian AA Metal-X cymbals.
Also uses Pro-Mark 5BN Drumsticks and Evans drum heads.


Discography

Demo Recordings
For information, see Early Avenged Sevenfold releases.


Albums
Date of release Title Label U.S. Billboard peak U.S. sales
July 24, 2001 Sounding the Seventh Trumpet Goodlife Recording
August 8, 2001 Warmness on the Soul EP Goodlife Recording
March 19, 2002 Sounding the Seventh Trumpet Re-Release Hopeless Records
August 26, 2003 Waking the Fallen Hopeless Records 12 (Independent Album Chart) 175,000
June 7, 2005 City of Evil Warner Bros. Records 30 697,000

Singles
Date of release Title Label Other Info
September 19, 2005 Bat Country Warner Bros.
February 6, 2006 Beast and the Harlot Warner Bros.
June 12, 2006 Burn It Down Warner Bros. CD/Vinyl Release only. No video/radio play.
July 10, 2006 Seize the Day Warner Bros. Currently not available as a CD or vinyl.

Videography
March 2001 - Warmness on the Soul (professional video) - Sounding the Seventh Trumpet -(Video)
March 6, 2004 - Unholy Confessions (live video with dubbed music) - Waking the Fallen - (Video)
July 28, 2005 - Bat Country - (professional video directed by Marc Klasfeld) - City of Evil (video from Bedlam Society)
February 6, 2006 - Beast and the Harlot - (professional video directed by Tony Petrossian) - City of Evil (Video from YouTube)
June 30, 2006 - Seize the Day - (professional video directed by Wayne Isham) - City of Evil (Video From YouTube)
Burn It Down (live video with dubbed music)

Compilations
Plea for Peace/Take Action! Vol. 2 (2002) (Subcity Records)
"Turn the Other Way"
Take Action! Vol. 3 (2003) (Subcity Records)
"Chapter Four"
Metal=Life CD/DVD (2003) (Subcity Records)
"Unholy Confessions" & Video
Operation: Punk Rock Freedom (2003) (Hopeless Records/Subcity Records)
"Chapter Four" & "Darkness Surrounding"
Hopelessly Devoted to You Vol. 4 (2004) (Hopeless Records/Subcity Records)
"Second Heartbeat" & "Darkness Surrounding"
Hopelessly Devoted to You Vol. 5 (2005) (Hopeless Records/Subcity Records)
"Chapter Four" & "Eternal Rest (Live)" (feat. "Unholy Confessions" video on Enhanced CD)
Masters of Horror Soundtrack (2005)
"Beast and the Harlot" (live)
Kerrang! - High Voltage: A Brief History of Rock (2006) [1]
"Walk" (Pantera cover)
Hopelessly Devoted to You Vol. 6 (2006) (Hopeless Records/Subcity Records)
"Darkness Surrounding" & "Unholy Confessions" (feat. "Unholy Confessions" video and "We Come Out at Night" live at Warped Tour 2003 video on included DVD)
Kerrang! - Kerrang! Awards 2006 (2006)
"Beast And The Harlot"

Miscellaneous
Zacky Vengeance owns his own clothing line, called "Zacky V. Presents..." It features the popular "Vengeance University" line, featuring shirts and belt buckles. [2].
Synyster Gates also has a clothing line due out, tentatively titled "Syn."
The Rev and Synyster were both members of the band Pinkly Smooth, formed with members of the now-extinct band Ballistico. The Rev sang and also recorded drums. Former Avenged Sevenfold bassist, Justin Sane, was also in the band.
Zacky Vengeance was a baseball player in high school and has said that if he were not in a band, he would have pursued a professional career.
The group won "Best New Artist" at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards despite being a band since 1999.

choosing a hardisk

The disk that contains your computer’s operating system is called the startup disk or boot disk. In addition to the operating system, the startup disk also stores your applications (such as Final Cut Pro), your application preferences, system settings, and documents. Because the files on the startup disk are your most critical data, maintaining the startup disk is vital.

Because digital media (especially high data rate video) makes your disks work harder, you should use dedicated disks for capturing and playing back your digital video and other media files. Consider your media disks as storage units that work long, hard hours, while your startup disk keeps your system properly organized. If a disk is going to malfunction, it’s better if your critical data is separate from your replaceable media files.

Depending on what kind of computer you are using, you may be able to use internal and external hard disks to store your media files. Each has benefits and drawbacks.

Internal disks:

• May be less expensive because they don’t have external cases or require their own power supplies
• Are inside your computer, causing less noise
• Are limited by the expansion capabilities of your computer and the heat buildup they cause

External disks:

• Let you easily switch between projects by switching disks connected to the computer
• Let you move a project quickly from one computer system to another in a different location
• May be more expensive because of external cases and power supplies
• May be noisy

Types of Hard Disk Drives

There are several disk drive technologies you can choose. The type appropriate for your needs depends on the format and data rate of the video you’re capturing. Each disk drive technology has benefits and limitations. The main choices currently available are:

• ATA
• FireWire
• SCSI
• RAID and Fibre Channel

ATA Disk Drives

There are two kinds of ATA disks:

• Parallel (Ultra) ATA disks: These are found in Power Mac G4 computers.
• Serial ATA disks: These come with Mac Pro and Power Mac G5 computers.

ATA disks do not offer as high a level of performance as LVD or Ultra160 SCSI disks. If you plan to use Ultra ATA disks, make sure that:

• The sustained transfer speed is 8 MB/sec. or faster
• The average seek time is below 9 ms
• The spindle speed is at least 5400 rpm, although 7200 rpm is better

Parallel (Ultra) ATA Disks

Many editors use parallel ATA (PATA) disks (also called Ultra DMA, Ultra EIDE, and ATA-33/66/100/133) with DV equipment. Parallel ATA disks are disks that you install internally. Because imported DV material has a fixed data rate of approximately 3.6 MB/sec., high-performance parallel ATA disks typically can capture and output these streams without difficulty. The numbers following the ATA designation indicate the maximum data transfer rate possible for the ATA interface, not the disk drive itself. For example, an ATA-100 interface can theoretically handle 100 MB/sec., but most disk drives do not spin fast enough to reach this limit.

Parallel ATA disks use 40- or 80-pin–wide ribbon cables to transfer multiple bits of data simultaneously (in parallel), they have a cable length limit of 18 inches, and they require 5 volts of power. Depending on your computer, there may be one or more parallel ATA (or IDE) controller chips on the motherboard. Each parallel ATA channel on a computer motherboard supports two channels, so you can connect two disk drives. However, when both disk drives are connected, they must share the data bandwidth of the connection, so the data rate can potentially be reduced.

Serial ATA Disks

Serial ATA (SATA) disks are newer than parallel ATA disk drives. The disk drive mechanisms may be similar, but the interface is significantly different. The serial ATA interface has the following characteristics:

• Serial data transfer (one bit at a time)
• 150 MB/sec. theoretical data throughput limit
• 7-pin data connection, with cable limit of 1 meter
• Operates with 250 mV
• Only one disk drive allowed per serial ATA controller chip on a computer motherboard, so disk drives do not have to share data bandwidth

FireWire Disk Drives

Although not recommended for all systems, FireWire disk drives can be effectively used to capture and edit projects using low data rate video clips, such as those captured using the DV codec. However, most FireWire disk drives lack the performance of internal Ultra ATA disk drives or of internal or external SCSI disk drives. For example, a FireWire disk drive may not be able to support real-time playback with as many simultaneous audio and video tracks as an internal Ultra ATA disk drive can. This can also affect the number of simultaneous real-time effects that can be played back.

Keep the following points about FireWire drives in mind:

• FireWire disk drives are not recommended for capturing high data rate material such as uncompressed SD or HD video.
• Certain DV camcorders cannot be connected to a computer while a FireWire disk drive is connected simultaneously. In many cases, you can improve performance by installing a separate FireWire PCI card to connect your FireWire drive.
• You may be able to improve performance by reducing the real-time video playback data rate and the number of real-time audio tracks in the General tab of the User Preferences window.
• You should never disconnect a FireWire disk drive prior to unmounting it from the Finder.

SCSI Disk Drives

Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) disk drives are among the fastest drives available. SCSI technology has been implemented in various ways over the years, with each successive generation achieving better performance. Currently, the two fastest SCSI standards for video capture and playback are:

• Ultra2 LVD (Low Voltage Differential) SCSI: Ultra2 LVD SCSI disk drives offer fast enough performance to capture and output video at high data rates when a single disk is formatted as a single volume (as opposed to formatting several disks together as a disk array).
• Ultra320 and Ultra160 SCSI: These are faster than Ultra2 LVD SCSI disks.

SCSI disks can be installed internally or connected externally. Many users prefer external SCSI disk drives because they’re easier to move and they stay cooler. If your computer didn’t come with a preinstalled Ultra2 LVD, Ultra160, or Ultra320 SCSI disk drive, you need to install a SCSI card in a PCI slot so you can connect a SCSI disk drive externally.

A SCSI card allows you to connect up to 15 SCSI disk drives in a daisy chain, with each disk drive connected to the one before it and the last terminated. (Some SCSI cards support more than one channel; multiple-channel cards support 15 SCSI disks per channel.) Use high-quality, shielded cables to prevent data errors. These cables should be as short as possible (3 feet or less); longer cables can cause problems. You must use an active terminator on the last disk for reliable performance.

Note: Active terminators have an indicator light that goes on when the SCSI chain is powered.

All devices on a SCSI chain run at the speed of the slowest device. To achieve a high level of performance, connect only Ultra2 or faster SCSI disk drives to your SCSI interface card. Otherwise, you may impede performance and get dropped frames during capture or playback.

Note: Many kinds of SCSI devices are slower than Ultra2 devices, including scanners and removable storage media. You should not connect such devices to your high-performance SCSI interface.

Using a RAID or Disk Array

You can improve the transfer speed of individual disks by configuring multiple disk drives in a disk array. In a Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID), multiple SCSI, ATA, or FireWire disk drives are grouped together via hardware or software and treated as a single data storage unit. This allows you to record data to multiple drives in parallel, increasing access time significantly. You can also partition the array into multiple volumes.

Creating a disk array is necessary only if high performance is required to capture and play back your video at the required data rate without dropping frames.

If you require rock-solid data integrity, consider purchasing a RAID. Many RAIDs record the same data on more than one disk, so that if a drive stops working, the same data can still be retrieved from another disk. There are many RAID variations available, but one that offers high performance for both digital video capture and data redundancy is RAID level 3. Because they use specialized hardware, RAID level 3 systems can be more expensive, but they should be considered whenever the safety of your media is more important than the cost of your disks.

When you create or purchase a disk array, there are two important considerations:

• Compatibility: Make sure the software you use to create the array is compatible with Final Cut Pro.
• Ventilation: If you’re creating an array yourself with an off-the-shelf drive enclosure, make sure to allow for good ventilation. Disk arrays store information on several disks simultaneously. If one of your disk drives fails, information on all the disks is lost. One of the most common reasons a disk drive breaks down is overheating, so make sure that your disks stay cool.

Important: Check the manufacturer’s specifications before buying disks to make sure the disks offer the level of performance you need.

Fibre Channel Drive Arrays and RAIDs

Fibre Channel is a hard disk drive interface technology designed primarily for high-speed data throughput for high-capacity storage systems, usually set up as a disk array or RAID. Fibre Channel disk drive systems typically have performance rivaling or exceeding that of high-performance SCSI disk arrays.

One of the most common ways of connecting a computer to a Fibre Channel disk drive system for video capture and output is called a point-to-point connection. A single computer, equipped with a Fibre Channel PCI card, is connected to a single Fibre Channel disk drive array. Unlike SCSI systems, Fibre Channel cables can be run extremely long distances, up to 30 meters using copper cables and 6 miles (10 kilometers) using optical cables.

For all its advantages, a Fibre Channel disk array requires more setup than the other storage options previously described, making it unsuitable for portable use. Fibre Channel disk arrays usually have extremely high capacity (potentially several terabytes of disk storage). Although this can make them more expensive relative to other storage solutions, the cost per megabyte is often considerably lower.

Storage Area Networks

A storage area network (SAN) such as an Apple Xsan system consists of one or more disk arrays that are made available to multiple computer systems simultaneously. Broadcast and post-production facilities can use an Xsan system to share a single set of media files among multiple editing systems.

Xsan software allows an administrator to control SAN access privileges for each editing system. For example, a capturing edit station may have read-and-write access to the SAN, while an assistant editor station may only have read access to media files for a particular project. An administrator may also control permissions to make sure editors capture material only to specific folders.

Advantages of Xsan include:

• Media files are instantly accessible from multiple editing systems.
• Storage capacity and bandwidth can be scaled as needed.
• Editors can move between editing suites and continue working on the same project without moving media files.
• Assistant editors can load, output, or archive media without disturbing an ongoing edit session.
• Producers can view dailies or finished sequences for approval without being in an editing suite.