Avenged Sevenfold is an American rock band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. Consisting of M. Shadows (vocals), Synyster Gates (lead guitar), Zacky Vengeance (rhythm guitar) and Johnny Christ (bass), the band achieved mainstream success with their 2005 album City of Evil, which includes singles such as "Burn It Down (Burn It Down (song))", "Bat Country," "Beast and the Harlot" and "Seize the Day (Seize the Day (song))." The bands success followed with their self-titled album (Avenged Sevenfold (album)), that includes singles such as "Critical Acclaim", "Almost Easy", "Afterlife (Afterlife (Avenged Sevenfold song))", "Scream (Scream (Avenged Sevenfold song))" and "Dear God (Dear God (Avenged Sevenfold song))".

In December 2009, the death of their drummer and founding member, James "The Rev" Sullivan (The Rev) was announced. The band chose to continue on following Sullivans death, recruiting Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater to fill in Sullivans place as a rebound drummer for their fifth studio album, entitled Nightmare, which is to be released on July 17, 2010.

Avenged Sevenfold emerged with a metalcore sound on their first two albums, but later changed their musical style into a more hard rock approach with City of Evil. 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 (Ultimate Guitar Archive)s Top Ten Bands of the Decade.