It's not as much about the numbers as much as it is that our fans made a mark on this world for us.
You really have to play with the space in a riff so it can be allowed to breathe.
What it really comes down to, especially in metal, is that the bass needs to cut through, so you go to the pick for that effect. But when you have a certain feel about the music and really dig in to get a big growl, you have to go with the fingers, because you're not going to get it with a pick.
We always mess around with riffs and stuff and kind of jam out during sound checks, but we never actually started playing covers live until we started goofing off a little bit more on stage.
We were about ready to go out on the road with Maiden, and Kerrang asked us to do an Iron Maiden tribute song. While we were home, we recorded that. And that was it.
It wasn't until high school that I realized Avenged Sevenfold was picking up locally.
I've always had influences from all over the place, like Mr. Bungle and Primus. As a band, we try not to focus too much on where it's coming from, because we're always listening to music.
You can have the best riff in the world, but if the drums behind it just ain't vibing it, it's not gonna be the greatest riff, right? So you've gotta have someone there that can really bring that to life.
You can definitely tell the record was made for the time that it was and on the budget that it was. 'Waking the Fallen,' I mean. We think that it is cool. It serves its purpose. It serves its time. We don't want to remaster it or anything like that.
We're lucky to have such great fans that have stood by us, let us be us and try new things.
It's a trip now that other bands are saying that they look up to us. In my mind, I'm still 18 years old trying to emulate Pantera in my bedroom.
There were numerous times where, at the end of a week of working on a song, there was a part of it that we still weren't feeling, so we'd scrap the whole thing and start from scratch the next week.
If it weren't for this, I'd probably be working a normal job and playing on the weekends for 10 people at the Irvine Spectrum.
We have the greatest fans in the world, and our growth has been so organic. It's online; it's out at the shows. It's a big family, and they know we're going to do our best, and we know they're going to give it their best.
Not a lot of hard rock bands are just letting it all be - they're adding a lot of samples on things, or effects or whatever - and we just wanted the drums to be raw so you could really hear what Brooks Wackerman is capable of.
When it comes right down to it, no, we're not religious at all.
Kerrang asked us to do a heavy metal tribute to one of our favorite heavy metal bands. We had already been jamming out on 'Walk,' so we're like, 'OK. We'll record it for you guys.'
There was a time when we were in a van and handing out the CDs at Warped Tour. We had a two-song EP that we were just handing out for free just to promote ourselves. That was on the 'Waking the Fallen' record, and we were just going around and handing out the CDs and stuff like that.
We are just happy to be together and out and traveling the world together.
We definitely want to make sure that what we are making is something that we are proud of and something that we are inspired to write.
