Requiem for the Rev

Words: Alicia D’Aversa

The first time I ever heard a song from Avenged Sevenfold I was a senior in high school.  I did not care too much about music; a terrifying concept… I know. It was shortly after the death of Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan and I was seeing his image all over the news.  My curiosity got the best of me so I asked my friend about Jimmy and the band.  He happily offered to introduce me to the sounds of Avenged Sevenfold.  I agreed, but only if I may choose the song as I was scared of being confronted with something too heavy for my then unexperienced ears. I chose a song that I assumed to be a ballad called A Little Piece of Heaven.  The track title was accurate and it was in fact a little piece of heaven, but definitely not a ballad.

I was hooked instantly by more than just the lyrics but the sound. I had never been so surprised, and so intrigued in all of my life. It sounded like a weird, heavy metal, Halloween-circus theme and in that eight minutes my entire life shifted. I knew nothing about the band, but suddenly I wanted to know everything. That very same night I listened to the whole album and it made my blood flow faster. Then I listened to it second time just to pay attention to the lyrics and how every song spoke to something in my soul.

When I watched the Making Of documentary of the album that was slowly changing who I was and how I thought, I saw the mastermind behind my favorite and the first song I heard—The Rev. I learned about the band and watched all their interviews and listened to all their music religiously. I came into the realization that not only was Avenged Sevenfold the most crazy, insanely wonderful and out there band I had ever heard, but that they had in their band someone who was not only a genius but a beloved and wild human being. Though I came into their fandom shortly after the death of The Rev, my love for him skyrocketed instantly as it did with the other members. The Rev, from what I saw and learned, didn’t care about what other people thought, he was a creative genius, intelligent and eccentric and wonderful. I thought he was the most brilliant person and saw the way people adored him, loved him, and missed him. He was someone special, someone not to take lightly, a person who had left his mark on this world forever.

The word legend is one word, and not enough to describe The Rev. I‘d like to add to that, epic mastermind. I got so into music because of the song that The Rev had conjured up. Now I listen to a ridiculous amount of bands and styles of music, but never in my life have I ever been changed, or struck in the way that Avenged Sevenfold and The Rev’s mind struck me. The world had lost someone miraculous, someone who (perhaps in my completely biased opinion) changed music, and definitely how I felt about music. It saddened me greatly to know this, but I made sure that I told every person I met about my new found love for this band, for the song that changed my life.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that every other song he did was not as epic as that one. Almost Easy, I always found, had the most melodic drum track that he ever created. I listened to the instrumental version a million times, watched videos of him playing it and I was astounded every single time. The easy grace in which he played it, making it seem like the simplest thing that anyone could ever do.

The Rev was a man so far beyond anyone else. He left behind a legacy, music that speaks to his fans even now. There is not a single song that he was a part of that does not chill people to the bone, and that includes the songs that came after him that are about him. Though as fans, we did not know him personally, we loved him as though we did. He is someone who never lied about who he was to his fans, he portrayed his thoughts through his music—he was loud and triumphant and a king amongst men. He has changed the life of people all over the world, through his music and his words, and the way no one can quite play drums like he can. We may be biased, it’s true, but for us, it is hard to find a drummer in all the world who can speak to us, and hold our hearts the way he did