Nightmare

Released in 2010, Nightmare represents the most significant turning point in Avenged Sevenfold's career. Originally conceived as a dark concept album in the vein of Pink Floyd's The Wall, the project was fundamentally altered by the death of founding drummer and primary songwriter Jimmy 'The Rev' Sullivan during the demo phase. The resulting record serves as a tribute to his life and a meditation on his passing. The band recruited The Rev's idol, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, to record the drum parts, ensuring a technical proficiency that honored Sullivan's style while pushing the band toward a more progressive metal sound. Produced by Mike Elizondo and mixed by Andy Wallace, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, cementing the band's status as stadium-level headliners. It features some of their most ambitious compositions, including the ten-minute closer 'Save Me' and the haunting 'Fiction,' which utilizes Sullivan's final vocal recordings. Critics noted the album as the moment the band 'put away childish things,' transitioning from the metalcore-adjacent energy of their youth into a more mature, albeit tragic, heavy metal powerhouse.