Note: I’m sure many of you are here after Avenged dropped their first single in years, Nobody. Man, I should probably add that ridiculous solo to this list, huh… Before we dive in, I’ve just launched a comprehensive guitar course for beginners, showcasing all the essential techniques you’ll need to get started with rock and metal music, from a POV perspective. Head to sightlineguitaracademy.com to learn more.
Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance are one of the most formidable guitar duos in modern metal music. Known collectively for their super-tight dual harmonies, and separately for their respective blazing solos and rock-solid rhythms, the pair have been spearheading creative innovation in the genre since 1999.
While it’s a near-impossible task to compile a list of Avenged Sevenfold’s top 10 solos and have everyone unanimously agree, I thought I’d give it a go…
Without further ado, in reverse order, here are what I think are A7X’s very best guitar solos.
10. Scream
This track first appeared on the band’s 2007 self-titled album, and features one of their tastiest riffs, supposedly based on the rising sound found in slot machines.
But while the riff is noteworthy, the solo is noteworthier. Emerging from the second chorus, Gates explodes into a rapid-fire, all-picked volley of triplets before reconvening with Zacky for a signature A7X-style dual lead melody. A strong contender for the best and a worthy entry in this top 10.
9. Second Heartbeat
This Waking The Fallen cut features some of Gates’ best early-A7X work. WTF was the album in which harmonised lead guitar became a mainstay of the Huntington Beach quintet’s music, paving the way for the record that catapulted them into the mainstream, City of Evil.
Syn’s solo in second heartbeat serves as the climax to a monstrous seven-minute track, and features those multi-string alternate picking lines and fast-paced sweeps we’ve come to love.
8. Bat Country
Bat Country was the track that really thrust Avenged Sevenfold into the mainstream. Scooping the Best New Artist Video title at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, and going on to be certified Gold by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the track has been firmly cemented as one of the group’s most enduring hits.
From the clean break, Gates launches into a solo choc full of so many different techniques. From the initial bending line to the right hand taps to the ferocious alternate picking, it builds perfectly until the climax at 2:48, where the rhythm section drops momentarily, allowing the two guitarists to duel. This solo stands the test of time.
7. Welcome to the Family
Welcome to the Family was the second single of Nightmare. Released in 2010, this was the band’s fifth album, and first without Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan playing drums. Though, there does exist a pretty cool demo of the record’s title track with the late drummer featured. The Rev sadly passed away in late 2009 at the age of 28.
The guitar solo in this track operates for the first four cycles predominantly as a call-and-response-style composition, before proceeding into a more melodic passage which in turn segues brilliantly into the post-chorus break.
6. Seize the Day
Since their debut album Sounding The Seventh Trumpet in 2001, Avenged Sevenfold have always been able to switch off the metal and lean more towards the softer side of songwriting. The band’s catalogue of ballads – from Warmness On The Soul to So Far Away to Set Me Free – is testament to their ability to convey raw emotion musically.
Seize the Day acts somewhat as a break point to the craziness that is City of Evil, opting for an arrangement with more of an acoustic bedrock. Its guitar solo is one of Gates’ best, and what it lacks in technical dexterity, it more than makes up for in pure, unadulterated feel.
5. Dancing Dead
This one never appeared on one of A7X’s albums, as such, but it did make it’s way onto self-titled B-side record Diamonds in the Rough, which was released alongside Live in the LBC in 2008.
It features a lyrically upbeat ode to the undead – not uncommon from the Orange County rockers – as well as a typically Syn Gates-style lightning-speed solo. It’s a wonder how this track didn’t make it onto the self-titled album, but here it is for you to enjoy nonetheless.
4. Beast and the Harlot
City of Evil offered fans their first glimpse of an Avenged Sevenfold free (mostly) of screaming. Beast and the Harlot kicked off what was the band’s most groundbreaking album to date, and one which would ultimately become their most commercially successful, with over 2.5 million copies sold to date.
The track is wrought with rich vocal harmonies, super-melodic hooks and killer guitar work, the latter of which is displayed in full force during the solo. Gates shreds a plethora of licks over the chorus’s rhythm section, before linking up with Zacky for a descending, all-picked chromatic line that feeds perfectly into the second verse. Enough description – take a listen above.
3. St. James
While songs like So Far Away and Fiction are raw, emotional tributes to The Rev, St. James exists as a triumphant celebration of his life. First appearing as a bonus track on the band’s 2013 album Hail to the King, St. James, to me, remains one of their most victorious compositions. I’m still waiting for the day they play it live…
After the second chorus, the main arpeggiated guitar motif of the song develops into a rising harmonised lead line, before firing into a solo which, in my opinion, is one of Gates’ best.
2. M.I.A.
I was lucky enough to see Avenged Sevenfold play live at the Belfast SSE Arena in June of 2018, and was consequently thrilled to discover M.I.A had made its way onto the setlist. It was the first time they’d played the song live since 2011, and crowd response was, needless to say, electric.
Written for US troops fighting overseas, M.I.A. closes 2005’s City of Evil, and features an eight-minute-plus running time, an A7X-typical prog-style approach to song structure and both heavy and clean sections spread tastefully throughout.
Gates’ guitar solo in this one is not always lauded amongst Avenged Sevenfold “best” roundups, but with the unbelievable dexterity and fretboard domination he displays, this is nothing short of a crime.
1. Afterlife
The third single from the band’s 2007 self-titled album, and a staple of their live shows ever since, Afterlife features what has to be regarded as one of Synyster Gates’ most mind-blowing solos.
Deploying a host of techniques from agile string skipping to nimble hammer-on/pull-off lines, machine gun-esque alternate picking to straight-up show-off sweep phrases, Gates penned a solo here that’s not only jaw-droppingly virtuosic, but compositionally sublime, too. A worthy winner.
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