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Kate Whitehead

It has been a busy couple of years for close-knit Californian band Avenged Sevenfold.
In August 2013, the hard rockers released Hail to the King, their sixth album and first without co-founder and singer-songwriter Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, who died in 2009 at the age of 28.
Since that tragedy, Avenged Sevenfold have been building on their live reputation with a tour to promote the new album. They headlined the seventh Mayhem Festival in the US last summer, and broke all attendance records.
"Our approach is pretty experimental, hungry and excited. We are always exploring different things," says Brian Elwin Haner Jnr, who goes under the stage name Synyster Gates.
Formed in 1999, it was M. Shadows [Matt Sanders] who came up with the band's name, a reference to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Each band member took their high school nickname as a pseudonym. The band members were in their late teens and still in school at Huntington Beach, when they released their debut album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet.

Right from the start, they were a guitar-driven band. Today there are two guitarists, Haner and Zachary Baker, better known by his stage name Zachy Vengeance.
"We didn't know how the sound would evolve back then, whether it would be hardcore riffs or what, but we knew it would be guitar-driven. Even when The Rev was breathing, 99 per cent of his material was for guitar," says Haner, whose father Brian Elwin Haner Snr (aka Papa Gates) is a country musician.
Coming to the end of a break from touring, Haner says he's been taking the time to experiment, and he doesn't restrict himself to metal or rock. "I'm a big fan of everything, I like to play everything. My dad's a professional musician, so there's been a lot of influence from him," says Haner.
There is a theory that it takes 10,000 hours of practice at anything to become a genius in that field. Haner hasn't heard the notion, but he scoffs at it: "Is that all?" He's put in a lot more than 10,000 hours, especially in the last few years, and all the hard work has paid off.

In 2010, Guitar World magazine listed him as one of the 30 greatest shredders of all time, commending him for his finger-twisting licks, devilish chromatics, and towering dual harmonies. He's a master of eight-finger tapping, arguably one of the most difficult rock guitar techniques.
One his father's favourite lines is about "creating your own weather", which means when there is not a lot happening with chords, play different lines and some arpeggios.
Haner even praises Chopin for his melodic ideas and beautiful scales. "Our filter is a metal rock band, but then you get songs like A Little Piece of Heaven and you get some kind of metal out of it, but it's certainly not a metal song," says Haner of the song on 2007's fourth album.
But it's not all about technique. He believes that spending time with creative people is just as important as mastering the technical skills. No matter how talented you are, you won't progress unless you have other creative people to rub up against and generate energy.
"I was lucky enough to be getting into trouble with the same guys who turned out to be the most creative people I've been blessed to know. If it's all just about scales and knowing what you're doing then it's limiting. You want to see things from a freer perspective," says Haner.

Music isn't all the band have been making. In October they released their first video game, Hail to the King: Deathbat. The third-person role-playing game is based on the mythical original of Deathbat, the band's logo and mascot.
"Matt is a huge gamer, he loves that s***, and he's been very fortunate to meet cool people who are very talented at making video games. So we spent the last two years designing it. We had input, but it's Matt's brainchild," says Haner.
The game has seven "hellish" landscapes to explore inspired by the band's discography and artwork, and also features classic Avenged Sevenfold tracks and an original score. "It's a video game that not a lot of bands could pull off. It's up there in the highest echelon of video games," comments Haner.
And it's not the first foray into the gaming world. In November 2012, they played characters in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, a bestselling title that featured Carry On, which the band wrote for the game.
Avenged Sevenfold are in good shape for their Asia tour after a much-needed month break. But even when they are not touring they still see a lot of each other, because Haner and Sanders are married to twin sisters, Michelle and Valary Dibenedetto.
 
Avenged Sevenfold, January 14, AsiaWorld-Expo, Lantau, HK$788, HK Ticketing, Inquiries: 3128 8288
 


Avenged Sevenfold are more than the average hard rock band

 Zachy Vengeance (left) and Synyster Gates. Photos: Manuel Nauta, AFP, Corbis

M Shadows

Johnny Christ

Synyster Gates

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With their own video game, Avenged Sevenfold are not your average hard rock band


Avenged Sevenfold are more than the average hard rock band

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}With their own video game, Avenged Sevenfold are not your average hard rock band

With their own video game, Avenged Sevenfold are not your average hard rock band