Avenged Sevenfold’s frontman M Shadows says that ex- Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy could never have been a permanent replacement for the Rev. Portnoy stepped into the breech after the death of original member Jimmy ‘The Rev’ Sullivan in 2009, recorded their 2010 album Nightmare and played on the subsequent tour, but relationships became strained leading to his departure earlier this year.
Speaking to Ultimate Guitar Shadows said that Portnoy was a godsend at the time but wasn’t a good fit for the longer term although he has no hard feelings:
“Yeah, we’re on good terms — it just got a little out of hand for a while there with us. And the way he runs his camp is a little different than we run ours. It couldn’t co-exist in that way and I’m really happy for him — I’m happy on a bunch of different levels. The Rev wrote those parts, Mike elaborated on them, and the record did really well. To me that’s a success all the way around.
“Mike helped us out in a time of need and he really stuck true to what Jimmy’s parts were, which we were really thankful for that”
The band swept the table at the recent Revolver Golden Gods Awards, taking four of the top prizes – with Portnoy lifting the trophy for best drummer, but Shadows didn’t find time to congratulate him:
“It was nice that we got to go in there and basically sweep those awards — it was really cool. And I’m sure Mike appreciates it as well. I didn’t get to talk to him afterwards but I know Zack [guitarist Zacky Vengeance] did and they exchanged some nice words. So it was good to see that he won that award.
The band have now found their man, with the addition of ex-Confide drummer Arin Ilejay who recorded recent single ‘Not Ready to Die’ before hitting the road with the band, and Shadows says that it was important for them to get it right this time round:
“What we were looking for was someone that was young and someone that was unknown. We wanted to give someone a chance that wasn’t completely jaded; we didn’t want them to feel it was a job. We wanted him to be a fan of the band and a fan of music and wanting to be out on the road and view this as their dream like all of us.
“One thing we didn’t want was some older session guy or some guy that just saw it as a gig — ’cause it’s not a gig, it’s like our life. It’s what we want to do for a long time. So basically we wanted a nice, young person that could obviously have the chops to play everything that’s been laid down before but also we wanted them to be able to have their own style.
“I didn’t know who he [Ilejay] was. We talked to our producer — Mike Elizondo — and we talked to Mike Fasano who was Jimmy’s in-studio drum tech and we said, “Hey, do you guys have anyone you could suggest?”
“Arin came in and just killed it. That was the first time I’d ever heard of him or seen him or met him and he came in and he was super skinny and small and he hits the drums like a beast. And it was like, “Whoa.” We were all kind of smiling like, “Wow, this kid’s got every chop down. Not only has he played everything right but he’s also transcribed everything right.” Which is good to us because you have to have an ear — you have to be able to hear what people are doing.
“He played everything Portnoy and Jimmy were playing to a tee. So we had a couple more sessions with him and he was just the perfect fit right off the bat — he just really blew us away and impressed us.
“It’s gonna take years for our fans and for people to understand what Arin’s style is and we’re still figuring it out ourselves. But he needed to have his own style and be his own drummer but at the same time be able to play everything Portnoy and The Rev laid down. So far he’s got two of those down and now we need to work on bringing out his style and what he can bring to the music.”
Ilejay’s debut performance with AX7
Reading, PA
Reading, PA
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