A couple years ago when I met my girlfriend she was an Avenged Sevenfold fanatic. She had posters and t-shirts and jackets and used a picture of Synyster Gates and Zacky next to each other on their podium during a solo. She loves to play guitar and used to play on her ex's guitar, but at some point convinced her parents to get her her own at the cost of her Christmas presents and birthday presents for like 3 years or some shit. She's so fucking good, only the afterlife solo is ever out of her reach. (Side note, when she got her guitar she was going to get a synyster Gates custom but when she went to guitar center she, her boyfriend at the time, and his dad found a Gibson Studio in the used section and convince her to get it over th synyster gates guitar, Fuck those guys I'm still so fucking salty). When I first met her and for several months I fucking hated Avenged Sevenfold. I would bitch about M Shadows stupid raspy voice and how boring the drums were. Fuck I was so stupid. I can't even remember what got me so in to them since then but I have flipped the biggest 180 ever. If anyone can find my Spotify I have a playlist called Second Heartbeat - Avenged Sevenfold and it has the 40something songs I listen to none stop all the time. I went and got my own schecter demon-6 and learned on only Avenged songs (Beast and the Harlot always sounded cool to me even when I hated them and I figured if I could learn the solo I could basically learn everything after that if I could become good at sweep picking). I only had played acoustic guitar and strings/saxophone/piano in high school. Guitar is way ducking better. So much other metal sounds like garbage, I find myself constantly looking up "bands like Avenged Sevenfold" and being utterly disappointed. I love M. shadows voice and practice screaming on my drive to and from school every day and the Rev has had so much of an impact on my life (his drumming aside which is utterly brilliant). I think about the things the Rev has said in the songs he's written all the time and what they mean to me and what they meant to him. Btw Pinkly Smooth is my secret pleasure and I listen to that shit all the time (I know I'm weird, but everything in Pinkly smooth is so cool to me although the guitar part in Mezmer sounds sick as fuck especially). Anyway, I gotta go play Blade and Soul with my girlfriend so I can't keep praising Avenged Sevenfold foREVer. On a side note, I almost want to cry about how mad and sad I am that I didn't like them earlier in my life and didn't get to see them perform live with the Rev, his voice/screaming is so abolitely great to me and his recording just don't cut it at the live shows. And if anyone wants to give me band to look for, I've scorers the Internet and this sub for such and nothing comes close. People try and recommend Bullet for my Valentine and a bunch of other bands that really aren't good at all. I don't know how to describe it as more than everything else is just boring. Bullet for my Valentine, for example, seems to use the same guitar riff/drum pattern for an entire song and I just get so bored of listening to them. Plus their singer kinda sucks. I just need 200 more Avenged Sevenfold songs, that's what I'm really looking for.