Synyster Gates

 

Brian Elwin Haner, Jr. (born July 7, 1981), better known by his stage name Synyster Gates or simply Syn, is an American musician, best known for being the lead guitarist of the American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He has appeared with many different styles of his Schecter guitar, however he tends to use his black with white pinstripes.

He studied at the Musicians Institute in Hollywood as part of the Guitar Institute of Technology program, studying jazz and classical guitar.^[1] After a year or so of being there, he got a phone call from The Rev asking him if he wanted to join his band, as lead guitarist. Haner joined rather than continuing his education to become a studio musician. Up until that time he was primarily self-taught by watching music videos and reading books. His father, Brian Haner, Sr., also known as "Guitar Guy," is a songwriter, guitarist and comedian. Gates is of Native American and German ancestry.

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".

Avenged back from Death

According to Blabbermouth.net, Synyster Gates, lead shredder for Avenged Sevenfold told that A7X came incredibly close to splitting up after the 2009 death of their drummer James Sullivan aka “The Rev.” What kept them from doing so was their fans and Sullivan’s family.

When speaking to The Pulse of the Radio, Gates said that the band was over for two weeks after Sullivan’s death. “For the first two weeks after he passed, we were done as a band,” he said. “We were just done. And because of the fans and Jimmy’s parents and relatives and stuff like that, they just demanded that we continue on and spread the legacy that is, you know, the crazy James ‘The Rev’ Sullivan. And we feel so good doing that and they completely expedited that process. They really got our ass in gear to get out and finish the record and bring it to life, you know.”

In another interview, Gates said, “One of his gifts in passing was definitely that we now appreciate everything a lot more than we did before and it’s really cool that we all came from childhood friends . . . to being in this band together.”

Don Felder release new song

Don Felder  has joined forces with Styx (@STYXtheband) singer/guitarist Tommy Shaw for the second single, “Wash Away” from Felder’s second solo album (and first since 1983), Road To Forever, released October 9, 2012 on Rocket Science Ventures.

The song, which hit radio airwaves today, was co-written by Felder and Shaw, and features Shaw’s signature vocal sound.

The singer/guitarist/songwriter/New York Times best-selling author/four-time Grammy® Award winner’s critically-acclaimed Road to Forever debuted on Billboard’s “Heatseekers” chart at #27.  “Girls In Black,” the album’s first single, reached the Top 30 on the Mediabase Rock chart.

Speaking with Sterling Whitaker at Ultimateclassirock.com about the track, “there were a couple of songs on the album, including ‘Wash Away,’ that I had built the track pretty much top to bottom and there was a couple of areas where I needed some lyrical help and I said, ‘I’ll just see if Tommy [Shaw] is in town.  I’ll just have him come over and listen to this and see if anything bounces off of him.’  He listened to it and loved it and we sat and wrote lyrics together that day for that song. And then he came back the next day and I said, ‘Well, you’ve got to sing some of these parts while you’re here,’ because he was getting ready to go back out on the road with Styx.  So we set up a mic in my studio and he sang some of the harmonies on a couple of songs, ‘Wash Away’ and ‘Heal Me.’”

As Tommy Shaw continues, “The best songs to write are the ones that just roll out of you and you look back and wonder, ‘Where’d that come from?’  That’s what it was like working with Don.  There was a natural chemistry there.”

Many of Felder’s fans tuned in to Showtime earlier this month for the premiere of the two-part documentary, “History of the Eagles.”  He spoke with Billboard.com’s Gary Graff soon after it aired, saying he thought it was a bit incomplete.

“Overall I thought it was OK, but I didn’t think it was really an accurate documentary…I thought a lot was omitted from the documentary.  There were a lot of things that weren’t discussed, a lot of issues that aren’t brought to the forefront.  It glorified [Don] Henley and [Glenn] Frey’s work, giving very little credit to all the other people who had worked so hard on the recordings — including Bernie [Leadon], Randy [Meisner], myself, the other things people brought to the table like [producer] Bill Szymczyk.  It was a large team of a lot of people working together to make it happen, and I don’t think that’s really reflected in there.”

As for the depiction of his dismissal in part two, Felder says he was surprised by “the anger that was displayed, and the bitterness, especially from Glenn.  It really left me taken aback that he was still so angry about all of that, and I couldn’t understand why, to tell the truth.  I’ve been way past it for about 10 years now.”