Johnny Christ

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.

You really have to play with the space in a riff so it can be allowed to breathe.

We're always trying to do something better than the last record; to do something different and evolve as a band.

We wanted to do something different and have a surprise release. At first, naturally, the label was getting a little scared about that, because they wanna sell records, and a surprise release means it might not go as quickly.

If we're compared to Metallica, the greatest metal band in the world, I think that's actually a pretty damn good compliment.

We are just happy to be together and out and traveling the world together.

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.

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.

These fans are the reason why we're here. They're awesome and very crazy. They love Avenged Sevenfold, and we love them. Having that is rare.

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.

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.