with the recent passing of "Jimmy THE REV Sullivan" on 28th Dec 2009 things in our A7X fam world was crushed, twisted, spat out and dragged in the mud. To me these guys especially The Rev were like immortals in my eyes; I suddenly found that even they can be torn from our life. It breaks my heart still as it would many other A7X fans out there as we still mourn for Jimmy he will never be forgotten nor will his presence on our music world disappear.
His brothers make the rest of avenged sevenfold.... Matt Saunders aka M shadows, Brian Haner jnr aka Synister Gates, Johnny Seward aka Johnny Christ & Zachary Baker aka Zachy Vengeance.
Also, with an added part time family member in Honor of The Rev is Mike Portnoy from the awesome band Dream Theater. We owe greatness to this man as he now has somewhat of a double life, no one could possibly match the rev in any way; but mike is none the less second to being a perfect match.
in 8 months after The Revs tragic passing the album Nightmare was produced also co written by The Rev with his comrades along with some rare saved vocals jimmy had laid before the tragedy struck. Some songs were written after the fact, that being one special song from syn gates "So Far Away" its hard to define a song thats written from the heart while lost in thought about his fallen brother; you can't its as simple as that.
Fiction: also known as Dead which is what the rev had originally named this song after writing it and handing it to matt a few days before again the tragic loss of his life... Grace, love, & sorrow is the feeling it brings to me we all have our personal thoughts on the song itself; so again you cannot define or even give it the credit it deserves because of the life it breathes.
My thoughts of the Album are below. I had written a few days ago while in raw thought myself but true to form from the heart.
From get go, this album screams Jimmy; a brilliant tribute for a fallen legend. Haunting and heartbreaking as it is. Hearing his voice again was pure heaven as was his drumming on the demo version of nightmare they laid before he got taken from our realm.
I owe a lot of happy times to these guys, and I'm damn proud of how far they have come from tragedy to triumph. I QUOTE... "NOTHING CAN STOP US"... those of you who knows this statement will know exactly the feeling it gives you.
From wanting to stand tall screaming "ITS YOUR FUCKING NIGHTMARE" to head banging through god hates us all down to crumbling and sobbing to both "so far away" and "fiction" this album is nothing less than a masterpiece of epic proportion.
9/10 - 10/10???? pfft! No one and nothing can rate this album it's just way too far off the charts for anyone to say otherwise. the A7X Fandom all around the world drew every cent they could to make this a #1 album pretty much on every rock chart down to dominating the American BILLBOARDS chart.
I'll personally say a BIG "FUCK YOU" to all the Haters out there that went to the trouble of voting on the Nightmare album with a one star so eminem could keep the top spot seriously you thought that would work?? I say again FUCKING, HARDY HA, FUCKING HA! it didn't work us true fans showed you what "REAL" FANS ARE ABOUT.
Mike Portnoy... my man, you are a hero... I thank you for bringing back our jimmy!
#foREVer A *DEATHBAT* CAT_K
Hey BabyGirl - yeah, Damie and I finally sat down and listened our way through the entire thing a few days ago, and while he whined "not enough distortion!" we both agreed that it's better than we expected and that everyone sounds amazing - could be their best work to date.
ReplyDeleteIt hurt hearing Rev's voice again; I've been avoiding anything to do with him all year. Tears were definitely rolling down my cheeks.
I don't know what the future holds for these guys, although Damie and I agree that it'd pwn if Mike could somehow own both projects.
I miss him. :( We watched All Excess the other night and it was just so sad to think that he is gone. Such a loss.
ReplyDeleteSo happy for the boys though. #1 in America. The album is amazing and listening to it is both fantastic and very surreal.
Cannot wait to see them in Feb! It will be insane... although with such a huge part missing, I am sure there will be tears as well.
Watching All Excess the other night was so sad yet so happy at the same time.
ReplyDeleteSeeing all those parts that we all quote endlessly and no doubt always will make me smile.
As I have said, as long as there is always music in our hearts, Jimmy will always be remembered.
To see the boys playing again, as ripley said there will definitely be tears but also knowing that this is what Jimmy would have wanted them to do, can't help but make you smile.
Thanks guys,
ReplyDeleteyeah, I haven't watched that for awhile now; gets bit lonely when no one here at home shares the same energetic enthusiasm for music as I do (pouts)lol. anyway, yep Jimmy defo would have wanted it all this way & in some weird way I think he knew.
xoxo