Synyster Gates

Synyster Gates was born on July 7, 1981, in Long Beach, California, to Brian Haner, Sr. and Jan (Smith) Gera. His father is a musician, comedian, and writer, who is famous for touring with American comedian and ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. In the 1970s, Haner, Sr. was part of Sam the Sham's band. Gates is of English Irish, German, and Creek ancestry. He has a brother named Brent, who works for Trinity One Insurance as an agent. Their parents divorced in 1990. Haner, Sr. remarried. Gates’ stepmother’s name is Suzy. He also has a half-sister named McKenna.

As a youth, he drew the initial inspiration from his father and later started listening to Dimebag Darrell, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, John Petrucci, Slash, Zakk Wylde, Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale, Mr Bungle, and Oingo Boingo. He loved heavy metal but his taste in music extended way beyond it to include jazz, gypsy jazz, classical and avant-garde as well. He enrolled at the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, California, where he was part of the Guitar Institute of Music program and was educated in jazz and classical guitar.

On May 7, 2010, Gates married California native Michelle DiBenedetto. On May 12, 2017, DiBenedetto gave birth to their son, Nicolangelo "Nicci" Saint James Haner.

In 1999, M. Shadows founded Avenged Sevenfold along with Zacky Vengeance, The Rev and Matt Wendt in Huntington Beach, California. According to Shadows, he named the group as a reference to the story of Cain and Abel from the Bible. They released their debut studio album, ‘Sounding the Seventh Trumpet’, in 2001 through their first record label, Good Life Recordings. Soon after, Gates joined the band and the album was re-released in 2002 through Hopeless Records. He was also involved in the making of Avenged Sevenfold’s first extended play, ‘Warmness on the Soul’, in 2001. After its release, the group garnered considerable popularity.

In August 2003, they released their second album, ‘Waking the Fallen’. This time, they had a new bassist in Johnny Christ. The sound on this album is more sophisticated and well-produced. It also attracted media attention, with Billboard and ‘The Boston Globe’ reviewing it positively.

Their album, ‘City of Evil’, released in June 2005 through Warner Bros. label, is one of their best albums to date. It is one of their most successful ones as well, having been certified platinum by RIAA and gold by BPI and MC. Their self-titled fourth album was released in October 2007. After its release in July 2010, their fifth album, ‘Nightmare’, topped the US and Finnish music charts and was certified platinum by MC and gold by BPI and RIAA.

The album ‘Hail to the King’ (2013) was their last one released through Warner Bros. before they signed with Capitol Records. It topped the US, Canadian, UK, Finnish and Irish charts and was certified platinum by MC as well. It was followed by a soundtrack album, titled ‘Hail to the King: Deathbat’ (2015). Their most recent album is ‘The Stage’, which was released in October 2016. It reached the top spot in the Canadian chart.

Besides these, Avenged Sevenfold has put out one live album, ‘Live at the Grammy Museum’ (2017); two compilation albums, ‘Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough’ (2008) and ‘The Best of 2005–2013’ (2016); and one video album, ‘All Excess’ (2007).