Rock ‘n’ roll was supposed to be a wild and free playground, but all those warm romantic feelings kept getting in the way. I needed to have some fun. I needed to forget Scot. I could not miss him. So I went to hang out with Avenged Sevenfold. I’d heard from girls on the scene that they were the kind of boys who’d show you a good time, the kind who’d make your troubles disappear.They were from Huntington Beach, California, and they looked like an instant cake batter mix of inbred serial killer: part white supremacist with a pinch of rabid animal. Even looking at a photo of them for too long scared me—especially the lead singer, M. Shadows, and their drummer, who just happened to have the same name as the Towers guitarist: The Rev. I wasn’t a huge fan of their sound. Even though they had ditched their hardcore screaming, they were still too nu-metal for me.Though their look seemed aggressive at first glance, their reputation for excessive behavior unfortunately reeked of public-relations press release.
