Nightmare

Nightmare is the fifth studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. It was released on July 27, 2010 through Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Mike Elizondo and mixed in New York City by audio engineer Andy Wallace. Nightmare is the first Avenged Sevenfold recorded without James "The Rev" Sullivan performing drums on all the songs due to his death in December 2009. However, he did write parts that were used for the final recordings, making this the last album he would write on, The Rev's vocals are still on the album as a tribute to him. The rest of the drum tracks were handled by Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, who also played with the band for all their tours through the end of 2010. They then hired drummer Arin Ilejay, who played with the band for the next four years since 2011 until his departure in July 2015. The album has been certified Gold by the RIAA in the United States. The album debuted at number 1 in the Billboard 200. As of December 2016, the album has sold 964,000 copies in the United States. The cover of the album features a tribute to Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, the tombstone reads "FOREVER" with emphasis on "REV".