Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal (93 page)

ALEX VARKATZAS:
We started out as a crappy punk band. And we realized that wasn’t what we wanted to be, so we changed our sound and became more hardcore metal-y. We liked the change and became determined to be one of those bands that constantly evolves.

BRANDON SALLER:
Our high school was in Anaheim, California, right on the border of Yorba Linda. Once a year they had a battle of the bands called “Creative Impulse.” You’d pay to get in, and we’d play those shows and only our friends would understand what we were doing. Every other band was ska or pop, and then we’d get up there and people were like, “What the fuck?” Once we got to play at lunch at school on this square cement 2-foot platform. There were a lot of people watching us, but a big portion of the school were thugged-out dudes and jocks and preppy girls, and they all thought we sucked. Alex had a cordless mic and he left the stage and walked around the school screaming. He’d go 100 yards away to the bathroom and take a piss in the middle of our songs. Everyone saw him as this weird tattooed guy with big ear plugs, lip rings, and painted nails screaming at people while they were eating lunch.

ALEX VARKATZAS:
I got picked on a lot, which is where a lot of my anger came from. When I was a freshman I got pushed into the pool at a big party. And once, I was running to class because I was late, and this big dude tripped me and I fell flat on my face. That kind of shit really formed who I am now. But I look at what most of those people are doing now and I’m like, “Fuck you guys. Who’s laughing now?”

BRANDON SALLER:
When we started our first demo CD [1999’s
Visions
], a lot of our songs were pissed-off, screamy kind of stuff. But as we evolved, I realized that I could actually
sing
, which I never knew because I had never done it before. There weren’t a lot of bands doing that screaming and singing mix; I’m not saying we pioneered it, but we took our own approach to it.

ALEX VARKATZAS:
We started as a metalcore band, but we
changed
. People have compared us to Poison the Well and Killswitch Engage, which is really funny to me because we were around just as long as both of those bands. They just got more well-known first. I had sent our first demo CD to the owner of Tribunal Records, Matt [Rudzinski], and he e-mailed me back making fun of the name of our band. And I was like, “Look, we have a four-song EP done. It’s mastered, it’s mixed. All you have to do is put it out. It’s mint for you. Just duplication.” He agreed but said he wasn’t going to do shit to promote it. So we pressed a thousand in 2001 and it took us a year to sell those.

DAN JACOBS:
I was the only guitarist back then and we were getting way more into hardcore and metal. We went, “Gosh, all these bands have two guitar players and they just sound so much heavier live and can do so much more.” So we got Travis [Miguel] to fatten up our sound.

TRAVIS MIGUEL (Atreyu):
I joined in early 2001. Alex and I used to work at Hot Topic together. He pulled me aside one day and said, “I think we need another guitar player, so if you want to come by and jam with us, you’re more than welcome.” The next thing I know, I’m signing a record contract [with Victory]. I had a semester of college left to finish. So it was kind of either do the responsible thing, finish up school and lead the normal life, or sign this record contract, which could go down in flames. I haven’t been back to school since.

JAMES HART:
Our relationship with Atreyu was not great at first. Their old bassist [Chris Thomson] liked to talk a lot of shit and was constantly running his mouth about us, Avenged Sevenfold, Bleeding Through, Throwdown, and Adamantium, who we got along with really well. It got to a point where none of our bands would play local shows with them.

ALEX VARKATZAS:
We were really on the outside of the Orange County scene. A big fight happened at one of our early shows between some of our friends and some dudes from Eighteen Visions. People had beef from it for years. Afterwards, a lot of people didn’t like our band and we had a hard time getting shows because I knew that none of those bigger bands were gonna put us on a show.

BRANDON SALLER:
It was extremely annoying. We were just like, “Why? What makes these other bands so special? What makes it so difficult for us to be accepted?” But we kept pressing on, and little by little we started seeing results. We didn’t get a lot of shows until our first record,
Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses
, came out in 2002. After that we’d book shows at Chain Reaction in Anaheim and put on our own shows at parties.

DAN JACOBS:
When we started getting more popular than bands like Eighteen Visions, I think people started to hate on us, and I think a lot of that came from jealousy. People who weren’t necessarily our biggest fans in the beginning saw us starting to do okay, and they said, “Why is this band, which I don’t really like, doing really well, and these other bands that I love are not doing as well?” I think that pissed people off and fueled their fire.

ALEX VARKATZAS:
I found out about this supposed rivalry with Avenged Sevenfold through
Kerrang!
They sent me an e-mail saying, “This is what this band said about you in an article.” They accused us of stealing a song from them. I got mad about it for a second and then I thought about it a little. It was curiously right around the time the Avenged record
City of Evil
came out [in 2005]. I think that was an interesting maneuver and a total fantasy. We never stole a song. If you’re cool with Atreyu, thank you, and if you’re not, go fuck yourself.

M. SHADOWS (Avenged Sevenfold):
All that shit gets so blown up in the press. We never had a real problem with Atreyu. Those guys are our friends. But I will say this: Atreyu get more shit talked about them than anybody.

BRANDON SALLER:
We decided that since we weren’t a part of the cool scene, we weren’t going to even
try
to be. We don’t want to be a metalcore band because that puts limits on you. We don’t want people to be able to put a name on us, so the more we can do to be able to make that happen, the better for us.

In the early 2000s, Atreyu had more pressing concerns than squabbles with metalcore bands. Having suffered through a series of dysfunctional relationships that left him disillusioned and bitter, Varkatzas became a problem drinker. His spirits improved considerably after he hooked up with current wife Hollie Anne; they got married on October 4, 2009. But back in 2004, the singer felt ready to burst.

ALEX VARKATZAS:
I had a couple of really big betrayals from people that were supposed to be my friends. It hardened my heart to everyone. I had this inner anger and mistrust towards anyone I didn’t know. At the time, I was drinking a good amount every day, and I lost it. I punched a palm tree and really messed up my left hand. I didn’t break any bones, but I ripped up all my knuckles and fingers and I poured Jack Daniel’s on it afterwards, which was stupid and hurt like a motherfucker. I was running away from some bad shit and I realized it’s hard to run when you’re drunk. I wasn’t performing how I should and I was letting my band down, the kids down, and myself down. The last straw came after we played a show at Carnegie Mellon [University, in Pittsburgh], with Taking Back Sunday. I had way too much to drink before we went on, and when we played, I couldn’t talk between songs. The songs come off from memory, so I just do it naturally. But afterwards, I was practically incoherent and puking all over the place. I stopped drinking pretty much right after that and found other ways to deal with my anger, like martial arts.

TRAVIS MIGUEL:
When I party too hard, something stupid always happens. We played a show in Ottawa, Canada. It was freezing cold, and like clockwork, I ended up at the bar after the show. The next thing I know, I’m in this apartment at this party and I didn’t recognize anybody there. I lost my jacket. I had no cell phone. I didn’t know the name of the venue or how to get back. I’m in a daze, and this girl comes up to me and goes, “Who the fuck are you?” I’m like, “Well, sorry, I thought I was invited.” She’s like, “No, no, fuck that! Lock the door behind him! Make sure he doesn’t leave.” And she storms into another room. I was like, “Fuck, what did I do?” This guy next to me whispers in my ear, “Dude, you better get out of here while you still can.” So I left real quick and ran down this totally empty street. By some divine act of God, I was able to hail a cab. I couldn’t tell him where to go. But as luck turned out, I saw our bus while we were driving and said, “Oh, my God, stop. We’re here.”

Atreyu released their last straight metalcore album,
A Death Grip on Yesterday
, in 2006, then harnessed their creativity in more creative directions. Varkatzas screamed less and sang more on 2007’s slicker, more experimental
Lead Sails Paper Anchor
(which included pop-punk riffs, horns, cowbell, and handclaps), and 2009’s
Congregation of the Damned
(which featured storming riffs and crushing breakdowns but lacked the clawing intensity of the band’s first three albums). At the same time, Avenged Sevenfold was evolving from a Maiden-obsessed metalcore band into a hybrid of Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, and Dream Theater. Unlike Atreyu, Avenged Sevenfold wanted to be rock stars from the moment they started jamming together in 1999, and they were largely motivated by the promises of celebrity—free booze, abundant drugs, and decadent sex. But while they earned the key to the backstage liquor cabinet while they were still young, their success came from their talent as players and songwriters, not their antics (some of which rivaled those of their heroes). Actually, the members insist they were more deviant
before
they formed the band.

JIMMY “THE REV” SULLIVAN (1981–2009) (Avenged Sevenfold):
I was a psychotic child. I was fucked-up when I was young. When I was eight, I used to kill cats, and now I love them more than anything, so when I think about it, it makes me sick. I’d beat them or run over them with my bike. Throwing them in the air used to be funny. I watched my friend James put his dog on the stove and turn it on. I broke my neighbor’s leg for fun because we were playing WWF. Then I turned into kind of a psychopath and did a bunch of acid and thought I was the smartest kid in the world.

SYNYSTER GATES:
If I had to do anything else in the world, I would be a failure. I couldn’t hold a job, I couldn’t stay in school. But one thing I never let up on was music. I was an honors student until fourth grade, when I got a guitar in my hand. Then I quickly became an educational failure. This is all I can do now and I want to be the best.

DAVE PETERS:
Matt [M. Shadows] and Jimmy went to Huntington High School with [Eighteen Visions members] James, Ken, and I. I actually went to middle school with Jimmy, too. Back then his nickname was Boner. One day, Boner brought his whole drum kit to school and set it up on the baseball diamond and played during recess. People went out and watched this sixth-grader shredding on the kit. Then the teachers came out. Everybody thought, “Oh, well this must have been approved. There’s no way he just came here with his drums,” which is exactly what he did. Finally, somebody figured out he didn’t have permission and they made him stop.

M. SHADOWS:
Freshman year, when we were fifteen or sixteen, we burned down a school that we can’t name because we could still get in trouble for it. We did millions of dollars of damage. We were fucking around and burning shit, drinking underneath the fucking school, just being assholes. And we set some shit on fire. All of a sudden it’s out of control. So, we’re like, “Okay, we gotta go now.” As we’re leaving, you hear the fucking fire engines. We were like, “Dude, we can’t shake this. They’re gonna catch us!”

THE REV:
At school I was kind of bragging about it. Then someone in my school said it was me.

M. SHADOWS:
The cops came to the Rev’s house, but he got out of it. One time before, when we stole stuff, I told the cops, “Hey, I didn’t really steal stuff. I just told everyone I did because I wanted them to think I was cool.” So the Rev did the same thing. He said, “No, we didn’t really burn down the school. We just said we did.” It was scary, but they let him off.

SYNYSTER GATES:
Before we started the band, we all had crazy long nights of binge drug using and excess drinking—just thinking you’re gonna die. You’ve been up for a fucking day and a half and you just can’t go to bed even though it’s been a while since you’ve slept, and you’re having heart seizures and panic attacks. I think we’ve learned our limitations and have a good time now. Me and the Rev and Zack used to do a lot of fucking coke. If I ever thought of doing as much coke now, I would freak out. But you’re young, you’re naïve, and you don’t know the repercussions. You keep going more and more and more until finally you fuck yourself up. Then you fuck yourself up twice, and then you start to learn. I had a bad incident with shrooms where I puked up a lot of blood. I was passing out and my friends had to keep me awake. I’ve woken up after puking in my sleep and that’s not cool either. But that only happened when I was really, really young. I’ve calmed down a lot since then.