Nightmare (Avenged Sevenfold album)

Nightmare is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. It was released on July 27, 2010 through Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Mike Elizondo and mixed in New York City by noted engineer Andy Wallace. Nightmare is the first Avenged Sevenfold record without James "The Rev" Sullivan performing drums on all the songs due to his death in December 2009. However, he did write parts that were used for the final recordings, making this the last album he would write on, The Rev's vocals are still on the album as a tribute to him. This is the only album to feature ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, who performed as the drummer for the album in his place, also played with the band for all their tours through the end of 2010, due to his separation with Dream Theater. They then hired drummer Arin Ilejay, who played with the band for the next four years. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA in the United States. The album debuted at number 1 in the Billboard 200. As of December 2016, the album has sold 964,000 copies in the United States.

Writing and recording
In late 2009, two years after Avenged Sevenfold released their self-titled album, and four years after they had issued their breakthrough studio set, 2005's City of Evil, the band started working on their next record, their "most personal and epic that will definitely take you on a very dark journey." However, as recording was in session, a few casualties arose.

On December 28, 2009, drummer Jimmy Sullivan (a.k.a. The Rev) died. Afterwards, the band suspended work on the album for some time. Not wanting to hire a permanent drummer, the band selected Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater (a major influence on The Rev and the rest of the band) to finish recording the drum tracks for the album:

Even under normal circumstances, I would've been happy to help the guys out in any way I could as I think Avenged Sevenfold are a great band; But under these incredibly sad and tragic circumstances, I must say I am truly honored to have been asked to play with them and I didn't even have to think twice about saying yes. [...] These guys are a true family and it is an incredibly emotional experience to be here with them for the first time without their lost brother. But they have welcomed me into the family with open arms and there's a real excitement to make the record they had set out to make. I am treating my participation on this album with the utmost respect for Jimmy's memory and am remaining as true as possible to the drum parts that he wrote for the songs and the record he wanted to make. [...] Although I wish I could stay on board with Avenged Sevenfold in a more permanent capacity; I will need to resume work with Dream Theater to start a new album at some point in 2011. However, I will be able to join my brothers in Avenged Sevenfold for at least the duration of their touring throughout 2010, and hopefully this will give them the time to continue to heal and get comfortable back on the road.

After a couple of months, more notices about the album became available; a short message from Zacky Vengeance was posted on the official Avenged Sevenfold Twitter on April 17, 2010: "Tracking is complete. There are no words that will ever describe the feeling of listening to this album while driving home alone at 4 am."

Johnny Christ stated in an interview with Ultimate Guitar about the writing process and subject matter of Nightmare:

We definitely had made the decision that it was going to be a concept record. We wanted to have a dark concept record, sort of like The Wall or Operation: Mindcrime. At the same time we wanted to incorporate some of what we had done in the past with the guitar work. We wanted to make it heavier in general. Throughout all of that, the songs that came out were musically already as dark as we wanted them to be. Then lyrically it took a different turn when Jimmy passed. The lyrics then became mostly – not 100 percent – but mostly to do with his death and his life.

M. Shadows and Synyster Gates, in an interview with The Pulse of Radio, confirmed The Rev's special appearance in the record. According to the band members, he left a couple of vocals (to their fortune, clear and in key) before his death, which they used on the record. With his drum fills and vocals intact, the record showed itself to be the band's last record with The Rev. The same band members revealed some details about the new record in an interview to Hard Drive radio:

[...] The new album, Nightmare, is dedicated to The Rev's memory and although it's not exactly a concept album, it does center around The Rev. The eeriest thing about it is there is a song on the album called "Fiction" (a nickname The Rev gave himself) which started out with the title "Death". And it was the last song The Rev wrote for the album, and when he handed it in, he said, 'That's it, that's the last song for this record'. And then, three days later, he died."

Release and promotion
The first single, "Nightmare", was released digitally on May 18, 2010. A preview for the song was released on May 6, 2010 on Amazon.com, but was removed soon after for unknown reasons; however, on May 10, 2010, a 30-second audio uncensored sample was again revealed, but this time at SoundCloud and on the band's official website. The band also posted, the same day, a video of the song on their official YouTube channel with animated lyrics, which received over 275,000 plays in 24 hours.

On June 3, 2010, the band revealed a "Limited Edition" of Nightmare for pre-order available only on their website, which contains:
 * Full Nightmare album on CD.
 * Expanded booklet featuring lyric sheets from the band and exclusive artwork.
 * Housed in a synthetic leather bound book with special silver-plated Nightmare crest.
 * Limited 24″ x 36″ lithograph entitled Death Bat Anatomy, featuring original artwork on special textured paper embossed with a silver colored Death Bat.
 * Instant download of the new single, Nightmare.

Since May 27, 2010, the band revealed the album cover piece by piece like a jigsaw puzzle over a period of eighteen days, revealing the complete cover on June 14, 2010, along with the track listing.

On June 29, 2010, the band made available an iTunes pre-order of the album, which contains:
 * Full Nightmare digital album.
 * Bonus track: "Lost It All"
 * Exclusive photos.
 * "Nightmare" music video.
 * Behind the scenes footage from "Nightmare" music video shoot.
 * Written treatment for "Nightmare" music video.
 * "Nightmare" lyric video.
 * Audio interview with album producer, Mike Elizondo.
 * Type-set lyrics with hand-written notes for bonus track, "Lost It All".
 * Sketches of album art concept.

The song "Buried Alive" was posted on the band's Facebook page on July 14, 2010, but experienced loading issues due to a large number of users trying to access the video, and was briefly taken down. The problem was resolved on July 15, 2010, and was posted on YouTube as a lyric video which also contained a small animation.

On July 21, 2010 the song "So Far Away" was released by KROQ radio exclusively for one day.

On October 19, 2010, the single "Welcome to the Family" was released.

On April 5, 2011, "So Far Away" was released, followed by the music video.

In September 2011, the band announced plans for a music video for their next single, "Buried Alive". They tried to get Rob Zombie to direct the video, but he declined due to being focused on another project.

Critical reception
Nightmare received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 62, based on 7 professional reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

In the August 2010 issue of Metal Hammer, Terry Beezer rated the album an eight out of ten. In his review, he had praised the band members for their courage despite the death of The Rev and called it "the ultimate tribute to a fallen friend." He also praised Mike Portnoy for his part in the album and found him a fitting stand-in for The Rev. 411 Mania gave the record a lengthy but highly positive review by giving it a score of 9.0/10. As a conclusion they stated, "If you’re a fan of Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare is a must-have for you. This album is incredibly moving and is better than any tribute to the late Rev I could have possibly imagined." Kerrang! gave the album 4 K's out of 5 concluding: "Where Avenged [Sevenfold] go from here is still in the lap of the gods. Whatever their future, though, Nightmare marks the point at which the Huntington Beach crew put away childish things and became men. Wherever he is now, their brother must be immensely proud."

Track listing
All songs credited to Avenged Sevenfold. Actual songwriters are listed below.

Personnel
Avenged Sevenfold
 * M. Shadows – lead vocals
 * Zacky Vengeance – rhythm guitar, acoustic guitar on "So Far Away", backing vocals
 * The Rev – drum arrangement, backing vocals, drums and backing vocals on "Nightmare" demo and "Buried Alive" demo, lead vocals on "Buried Alive" demo, co-lead vocals on "Fiction", scream on "Save Me"
 * Synyster Gates – lead guitar, backing vocals
 * Johnny Christ – bass, backing vocals

Session musicians
 * Mike Portnoy – drums, percussion
 * Brian Haner, Sr. – guitar solo on "Tonight the World Dies" and additional guitar on "So Far Away"
 * Sharlotte Gibson – backing vocals on "Victim"
 * Jessi Collins – backing vocals on "Fiction"
 * David Palmer – piano on "Nightmare", "Danger Line", "Fiction" and " Save Me", keyboards on "Danger Line" and "Save Me", B3 on "Tonight the World Dies" and "Fiction"
 * Stevie Blacke – Strings, string arrangement on "Nightmare", "Danger Line", "Buried Alive", "So Far Away", "Fiction" and "Save Me"
 * Stewart Cole – trumpet on "Danger Line"
 * The Whistler – whistling on "Danger Line"

Production
 * Mike Elizondo – producer, keyboards on "Fiction"
 * Craig Aaronson – A&R
 * Brent Arrowood – assistant engineer
 * Chad Carlisle – assistant engineer
 * D.A. Frizell – illustrations, treatment
 * Adam Hawkins – engineer
 * Ted Jensen – mastering
 * Jodie Levine – production co-ordination, contractor
 * Clay Patrick McBride – photography
 * Andy Olyphant – A&R
 * Paul Suarez – pro-tools
 * Jan Petrow – assistant engineer
 * Cam Rackman – paintings, portraits
 * Rafa Alcantra – art direction, photography, layouts
 * Travis Smith – cover art, tray card art
 * Joanna Terrasi – production co-ordination, contractor
 * Andy Wallace – mixer