Shadows

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Shadows' vocal style has evolved significantly over the band's career. On their first full-length record, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, he featured harsh, metalcore-style growls with limited clean vocals. The 2003 release Waking the Fallen showed progression towards melodic vocal lines while retaining a strong screaming influence. The most significant change came with the 2005 major label debut City of Evil, which featured minimal background screaming, stronger vocal melodies, and increased emphasis on harmonies and melodic hooks. To achieve this, Shadows turned to vocal coach Ron Anderson, who had previously worked with Axl Rose and Chris Cornell, working with him for several months before City of Evil was recorded. The absence of screaming vocals caused rumors that Shadows had lost his ability to scream due to throat surgery needed after Warped Tour 2003, but producer Andrew Murdock put down these rumors, stating that Shadows had planned the progression from screaming to singing across multiple albums from the start. Shadows explained, "We don't listen to bands that scream. I did when I was in high school and I kind of grew out of it." During a 2014 interview, Shadows mentioned he had intentionally changed his voice to become less raspy and distorted while touring due to longer live shows lasting from one and a half to two hours in support of Hail to the King, saying "you better be taking care of yourself or you're gonna be cancelling shows" and "I wanted to hit notes over the rasps."

In Their Own Story

Shadows possesses a baritone voice but is able to sing comfortably in the tenor range, hitting high C on a regular basis. His vocal range spans nearly four octaves, from D2, and reaching up to A5 - Shadows' highest recorded note to date. He chose his stage name because he thought of himself as "the darker character in the group". The 'M' is in place of his first name, Matthew, which he did not want to be in his stage name because of the way it sounded. He and the band took stage names because many other successful musicians that they were influenced by had them (e.g. Slash of Guns N' Roses, Munky of Korn and the members of Slipknot). Shadows also mentioned in another interview their reasoning behind choosing stage names also came from their intention to "piss people off". Shadows married Valary DiBenedetto on October 17, 2009. The couple have two sons, River who was born in 2012 and Cash, born in 2014. Shadows' bandmate Synyster Gates is married to DiBenedetto's twin sister Michelle DiBenedetto, making the two brothers-in-law.

Reader's Guide

Shadows has made guest appearances on numerous albums by various artists. He is featured on Steel Panther's 2009 album Feel the Steel and sings a verse of "Turn out the Lights". He also produced The Confession's 2007 album, Requiem, which, according to an interview, was one of the first steps which led to Avenged Sevenfold self-producing their 2007 self-titled album. He sings in "The River" by Good Charlotte on the album Good Morning Revival along with fellow band member Synyster Gates with his guitar solo. The April 2013 release of Device's self-titled album featured Shadows vocals throughout track 9, "Haze". He also sang "Nothing to Say" in Slash's self-titled solo album, as well as "Go Alone" in Hell or Highwater's debut album. He was featured on Fozzy's album Sin and Bones singing alongside Chris Jericho in the song "Sandpaper". In 2024, at the last show of NOFX, Shadows joined many other guests on stage to play guitar during "The Decline", the last song ever played live by the band. Shadows has also been longtime friends with David Vonderhaar of Treyarch, the developers of the Call of Duty: Black Ops video game series, for which Avenged Sevenfold have created four original songs. In 2012, Shadows and Synyster Gates made a brief cameo in Call of Duty: Black Ops II in which they provided the voice over and motion capture of themselves. In June 2013, Shadows competed in the sold out 128-team Call of Duty bracket at MLG Anaheim, placing in the Top 48. In July 2019, Shadows was added as a playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's "Blackout" battle royale mode.

Did You Know?

• Shadows was voted third in the list of Top 25 Greatest Modern Frontmen by Ultimate Guitar in 2017.
• His vocal range spans nearly four octaves, from D2 up to A5, his highest recorded note to date.
• He formed Avenged Sevenfold in 1999 with middle school friends Zacky Vengeance, The Rev, and Matt Wendt.
• Shadows married Valary DiBenedetto on October 17, 2009, and his bandmate Synyster Gates is married to her twin sister.
• In June 2020, during the George Floyd protests, Shadows published an op-ed piece for Revolver announcing his support for the Black Lives Matter movement.