M Shadows

Name: Matthew Charles Sanders
Date of Birth: July 30 1981
Siblings: -
Parents: -
Position in band: Vocals

Childhood and Family

Born and raised in Huntington Beach, expelled from several schools for violence. It is unknown that grade was the highest he completed. In the sixth grade he met Valary DiBenedetto, whom he's been dating ever since.

He says that his father is his best friend and that he really admires him.

Music and Singing

Matt used to play the bass before he started to sing. When he was growing up, he listened to a lot of punk rock and got into the metal scene when his father bought him “Appetite for Destruction” by Guns'N'Roses after he had seen them on the Headbanger's Ball. His favourite bands include: Skid Row, GnR, Metallica, Pantera, Bad Religion, Motely Crue. His father is his biggest non musical influence.

Before Avenged Sevenfold, Matt was in a band called: Successful Failure, where he wrote the song Streets which Avenged Sevenfold later recorded.

Matt writes all of Avenged Sevenfold's lyrics, each of them are very personal to him.

Top 5 All-Time Favorite Albums

  1. Guns n' Roses - Use Your Illusions part 1
  2. Blind Guardian - Nightfall in Middle-Earth
  3. Bad Religion - Receipy for Hate
  4. Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys part 2
  5. NOFX - The Decline
  6. Children of Bodom – Hatebreeder

The first CD that he bought was “TEN” by Pearl Jam.

Matt would love to work with Philip Anselmo (vocalist for Down/Pantera/Superjoint Ritual)

Tattoos

  • His first tattoo was when he was 16, it's of H20 on his leg
  • The cover art from "Sounding The Seventh is on his upper chest with two green and black nautical starts flanking it
  • Thicker than water on his upper chest
  • a verision of the Deathbat on his lower abdomen
  • a spider web with a star in the middle of it on his right elbow
  • left sleeve is made up of the horsemen of the Apcolopyse
  • Old fashioned microphone

Quick Facts

  • hasn't lost a fight since grade school
  • has the biggest scar in the band. It's on his chest from being stabbed with a broken beer bottle.
  • Thinks all is fair in a bar fight; don't think twice about what you're doing. Protect your face at all times and keep on hitting…
  • He's afraid that he'll lose his temper at the wrong time and end up killing someone.
  • He's a proud American
  • had surgery before the making of “City Of Evil” due to a ruptured blood vessel in his throat.
  • Motto he lives by: Do what you love or die unhappy
  • Most memorable gig would be driving 24 hours out of the way to play with Blind Guardian in NYC at The World... then getting there and everyone being sick and then we drove all the way back to cali.
  • Kindred spirit animal: Any animal with a temper
  • doesn't read a lot