Band M. Shadows Synyster Gates Zacky Vengeance Johnny Christ The Rev

Member Biography

M. Shadows

Name: Matt Sanders Stage Name: M. Shadows Born: July 31, 1981 Age: 29 Siblings: None Instrument: Vocals Quick Facts Hasn't lost a fight since grade school. He is allergic to grass. Has the biggest scar in the band. It's on his chest from being stabbed with a broken beer bottle. Had surgery before the making of “City Of Evil” due to a ruptured blood vessel in his throat. Motto he lives by: Do what you love or die unhappy.

In his youth, Shadows was notorious for his disorderly conduct and misbehavior. He was quoted as saying "I was in between a good kid and a terrible kid - I had a good heart, but a terrible attitude." He attended Huntington Beach High School after being expelled from his middle school in the eighth grade. As the band was just starting out, he was the darker character of the group (hence the name "Shadows") but he also wanted to incorporate his name, Matt, into his stage name. Matt was reduced to "M" because it had a better ring when combined with his stage name and ever since he has been known as M. Shadows.

Matt used to play the piano before he began to sing in his first band, "Successful Failure". When he was growing up, he listened to a lot of punk rock such as H2O and The Misfits and got into the metal scene when his father bought him Appetite for Destruction by Guns N' Roses after he had seen them on MTV's Headbanger's Ball. In following years, Shadows formed a number of bands with Avenged Sevenfold's rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance. Zacky was previously a member of a punk group called 'MPA. Shadows was in a band called Successful Failure in which The Rev was slotted to play drums (but was admittedly too good). While in this band he penned the song "Streets," which would later be recorded after Avenged Sevenfold was formed, and released on the first album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. The album was a mix of metalcore and punk rock but also includes a softer, more ballad-like song.

Guest Vocals

Year	Song	Artist	Album
2009	"Turn Out The Lights"	Steel Panther	Feel the Steel
2007	"Buffalo Stampede"	Cowboy Troy	Black in the Saddle
2007	"The River" (with Synyster Gates)	Good Charlotte	Good Morning Revival
2007	"Like Always"	Kisses For Kings	Demo
2006	"Falling Away from Me" (Live) (temporarily replaced Jonathan Davis)	Korn	Download Festival 2006
2005	"Entombed We Collide" and "This is Not the End" (additional vocals)	Death by Stereo	Death For Life
2002	"Savior, Saint, Salvation"	Bleeding Through	Portrait of the Goddess