MR: Hello ?

Zacky Vengeance: Is Jake there?

MR: Yeah this is, is this Zacky?

Z: This is Zacky from Avenged Sevenfold.

MR: What's going on man, how are you doing?

Z: Good, how are you doing?

MR: I'm alright, just to start off thanks for doing this for us at the Metal Refuge.

Z: No problem man.

MR: I got your cd here, I checked it out and it's pretty bad ass, but let's just kinda start the interview here if you don't mind.

Z: Cool, no problem.

MR: Now you guys got together when you were in high school and recorded your first album when you were like 18. How young were you when you started playing guitar?

Z: Um, I started playing when I was in the seventh grade, so it was around 12, 13... something like that.

MR: Were you self taught?

Z: Yeah, yeah.

MR: So were you playing along with the radio or cds or something like that?

Z: Yeah, I was playing along with my favorite bands. It was also a lot of fun back then so it was really easy. And then you know, over the course of just playing and being around people you start to try new things, I was trying to learn some new stuff.

MR: You just mentioned your favorite bands which I would take as your influences. Who influenced you the most as a musician?

Z: Um, what got me into it you know, was bands like Rancid, Misfits and Bad Religion. But, as far as all time favorite bands I've always like Guns N' Roses and Metallica and stuff like that.

MR: Speaking of them, what do you think of the new Metallica?

Z: I'm into it actually.

MR: You're one of the few!

Z: Yeah definitely, we get that a lot. (inaudible) Whether or not it's good or not it still sells a million copies.

MR: Yeah, how supportive has your family been throughout your pursuit of a music career?

Z: They've been amazing. They've always been helping, even before anyone cared about us. They've always been really understanding and helping. I think everyone's families have been, if it wasn't for them we would never have gotten to this point.

MR: Do they go to your shows?

Z: Yeah, it was funny because I never really let them come to the shows until I felt confident that they'd be happy because we were playing shitty shows for so long. With the bigger shows we've always invited them out and it's really cool. And now all the shows are bigger.

MR: That's cool, now I'm just assuming this, that you guys are using stage names or nick names...

Z: Yeah.

MR: How did you guys come up with them?

Z: You know, we just kind of picked things that just kind of came out of our personalities. You know there's really no meaning behind them, it was something we just did. They just kind of matched with our personalities and it's kind of darker... they just kind of stuck with us.

MR: Also kind of like a dis-identification of yourselves?

Z: Exactly !

MR: Alright now the band name is inspired by a biblical story, who's idea was it for the name?

Z: Um, that was Shadows that came up with that. He uh, (inaudible) it basically means the first murder on Earth.

MR: You guys didn't have any disagreements about it? As soon as it was brought up it was "yeah this is what we are"?

Z: Yeah, you know um, that was pretty much what happened.

MR: Alright, now I've read your roots are in punk but you also have been described as hardcore metal with rock influences. On this record you bring together a number of elements, do you feel that your music has changed since the beginning and if so how do you perceive your fans are accepting you now?

Z: You know what, to be honest with you we really don't worry about any of that shit. Our sound is definitely different now that just because we've progressed. We don't care how people perceive us, wether they love it or hate it. So far we've been getting a lot of new fans and been getting a great response from our existing fans and that's all we care about. For those kids that hate the fact that we've changed... then every album we put out there's always going to be a handful of kids that don't like it. You know, we welcome them not liking us anymore because for every kid that doesn't like us we're pretty confident that a lot more will.