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My journey with Avenged Sevenfold.

Kfir Yaakovi

Hot Topic Tourer
  • Nov 11, 2019
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    So, I got to know a few of the people here but I realized that I know nothing about you and vice versa. This post is to tell you a bit about myself, and my journey with Avenged Sevenfold and hopefully you guys can share a bit about your life so we can get closer and know each other better (even a few sentences).
    This is a bit long, I don’t expect you to read it, but I just wanted to share it with you.
    I’m Kfir, 27 years old, from Israel, Married to Bosmat. I’m a software developer in CheckPoint (Cyber Security company), and a Gamer.
    I started playing at my school at age 15. The school was a religious boarding school (Jewish), so I’ve spent most of my time as a teenager out of home. We were not allowed to have smartphones/computers/MP4 and stuff like that. This is where the music came. I got my first guitar, spending most of my time after classes jamming to metalcore music (bfmv, escape the fate). In the last year of school I started to walk in my own path, got long hair (which was prohibited) and did w/e I felt was right. After school, there was military. At the age 18 we have 3 years of military duty to serve. I couldn’t play that much anymore, but jumped on every chance that I had. 3 years passed by and I’m out of the army. A month later I started to chase other passion I have (Gaming/Computers/Science) and started my Computer Science and Math degree. My journey with Avenged Sevenfold begins there. One day, I met my wife at a tribute show for Slipknot. After few days she introduced me to a weird band called A7X. God forgive me, I hated them SO MUCH. Every time she played it at home I was laughing and telling her it’s bad. From here and there, after 2 months of relationship, we booked our first-ever live show of Avenged in London 2013, exactly for our 6 months together.


    A dream comes true – her favorite band for a decade. Oh the thrills, excitement, laughter and cry. Zacky broke his guitar, fiction live on stage, Johnny throwing us a pick. We couldn’t ask for more, indeed a dream come true.
    After we returned home, I got my first SG custom S guitar. I was a rock star. I sucked so much and I was the happiest.

    3 Years passed till our next show. This one was the most important one. There were 2 goals for that show. Get recognized by Avenged to come to Israel, and to propose on that one. This was Vienna 2017. We were a group of 50+ people from Israel flying with Israeli deathbat flags to win the heart of Synyster and the band, singing and jumping from the VIP on-stage. I’ve spent the half year before the show trying to make the proposal on stage, sending messages to the management – what is the best way to propose on our favorite band’s show. Unfortunately, even though they did want to do help me, due to a tragedy happened few days earlier at a show, I couldn’t make the proposal the way I wanted. Regardless, the show was breathtaking from the stage perspective.

    We got to talk and laugh with them and the funniest thing – my wife asking for Zacky’s pick and he was like, But I’M PLAYING.

    He did give it to her at the end of the show. When the show was over, they jumped to our stage area and got pictures with all of us, even though they were in a huge rush. Johnny can’t stop drinking.

    Best day. I couldn’t propose there either. I did it when we were out of the arena, with picks and drum sticks in my hands.

    We got married a year later, dancing to warmness on the soul and at that time, it was announced Avenged Sevenfold is coming to a show in Israel. Fuck, we did it.
    We already booked tickets to Graspop 2018, because fuck, why not spend our honeymoon in a fucking metal festival, front row in an A7X concert. The festival was 4 days before the show in Israel. We landed the night before.
    The show in Israel, there were such emotions, they are finally here. I cried for third of the show screaming my heart out. After hearing about the Israel show, we had to show some appreciation, so we came with a big Thank You flag.



    Syn – Thank you for noticing and sending thank you back at us. This was the greatest show of them all. Really no words can describe how we felt that night, there was something different in the air. The journey we went through, from complete strangers to unseparable.
    Few months ago Syn released his Black Moon. I already had a guitar. We JUST bought Syns acoustic because god it is beautiful. But I knew in my heart I can’t let this one go. I had the need to give back a bit, for my last 6 years of music, family, happiness, sadness, madness and love.

    And then I came here, starting my journey as a student and a better guitar player, learning from my Idols everything I ca. At the end of the day it always felt like a big family, a part of something bigger.
    I Hope I didn’t bore you :)
     

    The Raven

    New Student
    Nov 11, 2019
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    That’s a great story man. Always nice to learn a bit more about people on this site who I interact with nearly daily! I would post something similar so you guys get to know a bit more about me but unfortunately, I don’t have nearly as cool of experiences as you got 🙁
    Those are some beautiful guitars by the way. Syns custom line is always so beautiful.
     
    J

    Jak Angelescu

    Guest
    I’m seriously on the verge of breaking my laptop. I had the MOST amazing PAGE-LONG response to your beautiful story, and I went to hit “enter” and I accidentally somehow hit something that took me to another page and no amount of backspacing could fix it.
    I’ll try to summarize:
    I fucking LOVE this post! I can’t believe that was you guys in the photo with the “Thank you” sign they shared! How amazing! It’s so cute that you and your wife bonded through this band. It’s clear they have played such a big role in shaping your life to be the way it is now. “I sucked but I was the happiest”. I loved this statement. It doesn’t matter how well you play, the LOVE and the PASSION has to be there.
    Thank you for sharing such an awesome story with us 🙂 I really loved all the photos too! I hope others can do this, it was very entertaining to read!
    While my story isn’t as long as yours, it actually started the same way. I hated A7X in the beginning. Everyone was jumping on the emo/screamo thing and I was OVER it. Never liked it in the beginning, and still don’t really care for it this day. I’ve grown to love SOME of it. But honestly, I use to see photos of A7X on magazines and would roll my eyes because EVERYONE was just obsessed with them. And I personally didn’t see the big deal. I watched a concert of theirs live at my friend’s house and saw Shads had vampire teeth in with eyeliner and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find that attractive. I thought they were cute rocker guys in eyeliner trying to look like vampires and me being into that whole thing, that was about as far as it went. My brother was OBSESSED with them and tried to shove their STST and WTF albums down my throat relentlessly. Didn’t like it. Now I love it.
    Flash forward to 2015. My singer and I had a song come on the radio while we were driving and she knew EVERY FUCKING WORD. I said, “You know who this is?” And she said, “It’s Avenged Sevenfold. The band with the guitarist you said looks like Tommy Lee.” I couldn’t fucking believe it. That “Buried Alive” was written by the same band. She had bought and downloaded three of their songs and I didn’t know about it at all. She told me how much she loved the singer’s voice, and Ironically I crooked my lip and said, “Really? THIS guy?” Not because he was bad, but he was NOT the Sebastian Bach/Rob Halford/Axl Rose stuff pitched with high screams she usually went for. But I was moved by the purity of and non-over produced track full of awesome headbanging. I started to like them. Then I started to LOVE them.
    That same year, about 4 months later, my mother died suddenly. She had left me an inheritance to which with it, I bought a Schecter guitar, a line 6 amp, my beloved ESP, and every single A7X album. And then I heard “So Far Away” in the car. I had to pull over to the side of the road for at this time I didn’t make the connection that the song was about their lost drummer. I knew they had lost a drummer but I didn’t make the connection entirely that he was their BEST friend/soulmate. I lost it on the side of the fucking road. I literally lost it. My singer consoled me the best she could. The lyrics touched me so much I HAD to see them live. So with the little money of the inheritance left, we purchased tickets. Unfortunately it was at a show in Kansas where Matt had to stop the wild crowd. My singer had to be carried out as she suffered a concussion so we only got to see a part of Volbeat so close before she was dropped to the concrete. We paid for pit tickets and never got to see them in the pit 🙁
    Then the following year we vowed to see them again. We drove 4 hours on a school night and got only 2 hours of sleep but it was SO fucking worth it. Most people here know the story of that night. I was so ecstatic to see how close we were in our seats to the stage but lo and behold, we were in the wrong seats and had to move REALLY far back. At the end of the show, Syn tossed out picks and reached for hands in that area and my heart just fucking bled. My singer said, “Come on Jak, let’s hurry! We may be able to get over there!” But because she’s blind, I was NOT about ready to rush my singer through a crowd, steps, railings, and in the dark all in hopes to shake someone’s hand. Her safety wasn’t worth it. I just told her (and Syn knows this part now which makes me smile so much) “I’ll get to tell him one day how much he means to me and how much his guitar playing has affected my dreams for the better. I’ll get my chance one day, let these people have theirs.” And we left.
    The best part? Not even THREE months later, the school opened, I joined, a tutorial came out and he followed me on Instagram. Now in a 16 month time frame, he has supported my album, he gave me a shoutout, talked about me in an interview, gave me a prestigious gift, and has become a fucking AMAZING friend and so much more.
    This is why I believe all stories have happy endings. If it’s not happy, it’s not the end 🙂





    This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by  Jak Angelescu.


     

    Firsty Lasty

    New Student
    Nov 11, 2019
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    Very cool!
    I had a bad first impression of a7x simply because I first heard them way too early in their career. I think it was close to the year 2000. I can’t remember if it was some kind of demo or bootleg or what. The only reason I heard of them was because someone in another band mentioned they had bought a used bass amp from one of the a7x members.
    Imagine my surprise about fifteen years later when I found out that they had become one of the biggest metal bands in the world!
     

    Kfir Yaakovi

    Hot Topic Tourer
  • Nov 11, 2019
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    Jak, I’m so happy you loved it! – we were thinking what should we write on the flag. “Thank you” was all I wanted to tell them
    Such a touching story. Well, don’t ever stop dreaming and chasing your goals. YOU ROCK. I really wish you and your singer the most success, and I hope I can give a hand and help you achieve it.
    I hope to meet you someday in one of the shows 🙂
    Thanks Firsty! I was introduced only at Nightmare-hail to the king 😀





    This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by  Kfir Yaakovi.


     
    Synner Endless Summer Collection

    Jaylen Owens

    New Student
    Nov 11, 2019
    113
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    Mines pretty short cause im still so young. I beat bo2 then carry on came on i was so shocked of how good the song was then i went tonl YouTube then started searching there songs i was hooked ever since and olay guitar cause of them. Also really good story btw i really enjoyed it 🙂
     

    Filip Tomiša

    Campfire Attention Holder
    Nov 11, 2019
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    www.youtube.com
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    It’s so awesome to read your stories!!
    Mine started at the beginning of 2011 when my sister told me during lunch to come in her room because there was a song she wanted to show me. We always used to send each other songs on facebook, we never really did it in person but this time we did. So after lunch I went to her room and she played A Little Piece of Heaven on youtube and I was just speechless, I was just listening to this song for 9 minutes (it felt like 1 second) and I couldn’t comprehend what the hell I just listened. So I went back to my room and played the song again and listened to the whole 9 minutes again and after the song finished I was like: “This is the best thing ever!” So for a while i only knew this a7x song and then one day “beast and the harlot” was playing on my sisters phone and when I heard those double pedals I was so amazed I asked her: “WHAT SONG IS THAT?” and she told me that it was beast and the harlot by A7X and then I thought to myself: Damn this band has good songs, I have to listen to more.” and then I just started checking out the songs with the most views on youtube and I literally liked all of them. When I heard the afterlife solo my mind was blown and then I knew that this band was special so I started checking out their albums and I literally liked all of their songs. There wasn’t one song that I didn’t like and it was the first time this happened to me while listening to a band. Then I knew that a7x is gonna be my favourite band. And now 8 years later they are still my favourite band and people and I could listen to them for days or watch their interviews or whatever and not get bored because there is just something special about them. One of my dreams is to see them live and the other is to meet them if I’m lucky. When they announce their next european tour I’m going to the country nearest to mine to see them because I’ve been waiting for too long to see them live. When that happens I’m pretty sure that it’s gonna be the best day of my life!
     
    Synner Endless Summer Collection

    Calvin Phillips

    Music Theory Bragger
    Nov 11, 2019
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    My story isn’t fancy. But I’ll do my best.
    Unlike jak. I was big into the screamo. Funny cause I stopped listening to most and recently I’ve gone back to the bands.. and realized they actually had good tunes. Guess I always knew eh lol.
    But anywho I was into wwe and my buddy got.me into a rp site. Some entrances music were a7x. Two songs. Chapter 4 and darkness surrounding.
    Both favourites. Rev KILLS it. The drums took me away. And I loved Matt’s scream. I also loved his voice. I’ll admit.. when matt went city of evil I was like what’s this!? Over the albums I feel hes really developed his voice but city of evil I always was iffy on. His voice on wtf I always enjoyed more.
    So I downloaded the two albums. My sister used to make comments as I screamed along. I don’t even think I knew the words lol. Perfect rage music.
    When city of evil came out I wasnt upset really. I mean the guitar work..
    I didnt mind Matt’s voice but I had some opinions like i mentioned.I think matt definitely has gotten much better with his voice. I was skeptical on the stage too but I’ve grown to love it.
    I got my revenger and started playing or.. attempting to play a7x songs. After a while I changed to motley crue. Syns solos were too hard lol.
    Tried to see them many times but twice they cancelled and I couldnt make the reschedule. Matts voice both times. Finally saw them at rock star and they killed it. Then I saw them again on the stage tour. They did so well I had to go all out. So I did the VIP package.
    That was amazing. I have videos of the tours. And my playing the guitar. I didnt get the full package so I did it again but as we all know they cancelled again. But you bet I’ll be going next tour!
     

    Kfir Yaakovi

    Hot Topic Tourer
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    Calvin, great post!
    It sucks when the shows you wait for get cancelled, aspecially when you fly to different countries.
    When we went to the show in Vienna where I wanted to propose, they cancelled a show a week before, because of Matt’s voice. I was so afraid for Vienna to get cancelled too. But at the end of day, health is more important.
     
    Synner Endless Summer Collection

    Ed Seith

    Supreme Galactic Overlord
    Staff member
    Legend+
  • Nov 11, 2019
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    soundcloud.com
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    For me, it was around 2004. I’d slacked off on playing guitar maybe about 5 years earlier. The state of music wasn’t impressing me. A friend’s younger son – one of two boys who I was kind of a surrogate father to, since their own was never there – started telling me I *HAD* to listen to this new band, Avenged Sevenfold.
    The internet was not yet what it is now, especially with media content. I found a clip on RealPlayer (haha!! Remember that, anyone???), and it was something like “I Won’t See You Tonight, Part I,” I think, or maybe “Warmness on the Soul.” I listened to the 1 minute clip (that’s all there was, and it didn’t do one goddamn thing for me.
    “Dude sounds like a whiny little emo bitch, Robert” is pretty much what I said back to him, and that was that.
    Then City of Evil came out.
    Best album I’d heard in at least a decade, probably two. In fact, probably my favorite album since Queensryche put out Operation: Mindcrime in 87 or so. That album, along with Trivium’s “The Crusade,” made me want to play guitar again. It would take me a couple more years to do it, but that was the start of my renaissance. Huge fan ever since.
    My preferences are for their more dense, progressive, and adventurous material – CoE, Nightmare, and then The Stage just fucking floored me. Syn made me want to learn sweeping properly.
    Still not there, but I can finally do the 3 string sweeps at 130 BPM pretty well, so I’ll be bumping to the 4-string soon. That’s it – not super exciting, but that’s my A7X story.
     

    Kfir Yaakovi

    Hot Topic Tourer
  • Nov 11, 2019
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    Hehe Ed great one! You killed my with the RealPlayer..It was RealPlayer and QuickTime era.
    I agree with the sweeping thing. Im on ot myself, practicing on the sweeping, I only started few weeks ago.
    I watch your videos on Instagram. You are a beast with groove feel and emotions. Huge fan, you always make me smile