Avenged Sevenfold
Gates joined Avenged Sevenfold together with his best friend, The Rev, when they were 18 in 1999, right after the recording of the band's first album, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet. He was featured on the EP Warmness on the Soul which contains select songs from the first album as well as Synyster's new version of "To End The Rapture". His name on Avenged Sevenfold's debut album was "Synyster Gates", M. Shadows on the album was simply "Shadows".
Gates became the band's lead guitarist. Since Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, the band has released 4 studio albums: Waking the Fallen, City of Evil, Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare and a live DVD/CD Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough.
Synyster Gates plays piano in tracks "I Won't See You Tonight part 1", "Beast and the Harlot" and "Sidewinder".
On the Avenged Sevenfold DVD All Excess, Gates claimed that his name was created on a drunken drive through the park with The Rev.
He has won numerous awards, including the 2006 Metal Hammer "Young Shredder" award and the 2006 Total Guitar Magazine "Guitarist of the Year."
In the Avenged Sevenfold Special Edition of Revolver magazine that was released the same day as the Nightmare album, Gates stated that he originally started out writing the song "So Far Away" in honor of his grandfather. However, the song is now primarily about Gates' former band mate, The Rev, who died in December 2009. On April 20, 2011, Gates won the Revolver Golden God award for Best Guitarist along with band mate, Zacky Vengeance. Avenged Sevenfold picked up numerous other awards and delivered the headlining performance of the night.
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