He swears it's in check now, but Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows had such serious anger-management problems as a kid that he was kicked out of two different Huntington Beach, California, schools. The first time was for smashing a woman's car windows after a sixth-grade pizza party. The second, in seventh grade, ended with the mysterious death of the school principal. As Shadows (real name Matt Sanders) tells the story, he'd been slammed by the principal for leaning on a newly planted tree on school grounds. What really lit his fuse, though, was when the principal called Shadows a "punk" -- and not as in "punk rocker." That night, Shadows returned to the campus and ripped up every new tree. Someone ratted him out, but before he could be punished, the principal keeled over from heart failure. "He'd been a big steroid user, but they blamed me and kicked me out," says Shadows. "After that, everyone said I was 'the kid that killed the principal.' "
Six feet two and all muscle, Shadows cuts an intimidating figure, but these days he's found a less destructive, and more profitable, outlet for his rage. Avenged Sevenfold -- the goth-metal band Shadows leads, along with guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer the Reverend -- were the hottest act on last summer's Warped Tour. Their major-label debut, City of Evil, is tunefully pummeling thrash, full of songs about demons and harlots, as if Metallica were starring in a cartoony horror movie.
A7X thrive on their contradictions: Their name is biblical (it comes from the promise that Cain's slaying of Abel will be avenged seven times over), yet their breakthrough video for "Bat Country" is a bacchanalian romp inspired by Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Their politics are pretty conservative, but they are just as staunch in their belief that "the good life" includes access to large supplies of strippers, sports cars and controlled substances. In fact, they are bent on reviving the metal excess of their beloved Guns n' Roses.
The band members -- who range in age from twenty-one to twenty-four and have known each other since childhood -- grew up middle-class in Huntington Beach. For years, they were downwardly mobile -- not long ago they were touring in a van and eating ramen noodles without water, "just for a change of texture," says Gates. But things have turned around in the past year, and the guys are unapologetically gleeful. "We enjoy the finer things in life," says Gates. "We want money. We want nice cars. We want beautiful women."
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