James Owen Sullivan
Perhaps, you are not that familiar with the name I stated on the title above. Yet, if you are a big fan of Avenged Sevenfold band, then you must be recognize the guy whom I mean.
James Owen Sullivan or is commonly known as Jimmy The Rev Sullivan/The Rev; he was a drummer for Avenged Sevenfold and was one of the members who formed the band alongside with Matt Shadow and Zacky Vengeance. This great man was born on February 9, 1981; he was not only good in drumming but also could play another music instrument like piano. Moreover, The Rev had a vital role in the band where he was one of a song writers — some of among songs that he wrote back then were Afterlife, A Little Piece of Heaven, Almost Easy, Fiction, Save me and so forth.
Great on drumming, good in playing piano, a song writer, song composer, backing vocal; what might I say about The Rev? With those ability, he should be one of the greatest musicians in the world.
If we talk about The Rev, we cannot focus on the drum or the drummers only since he was a front-man of Avenged Sevenfold. But, because he was a drummer of that band, so I think we should talk a lot about his skill on drumming.
Reffering to the previous article; Avenged Sevenfold; there I mentioned that the band has been done such a revolution since their first album until now. The Rev as one of the band’s formers had already done such some amazing works. As a drummer, he had crazy speed; his hands and feet moved quickly to create a tone on drum. However, this guy was not only good in speed, he also had many technics to combine it in his own creativity.
The Rev’s skill looked clearly improved when Avenged Sevenfold released their second album Waking The Fallen. He played so well in all of the songs but I am going to give my credits for him in some songs titled Unholy Confession, Chapter Four, Remenission, Radiant Eclipse and I won’t See You Part 2. For me, The Rev was drumming well on all of those songs.
The Rev drumming kept being better in the next album named City of Evil. I think, the man did the amazing jobs within the whole songs of the album. As the songs have different style compared to their very first album; in the City of Evil album, Avenged Sevenfold was like improving themselves in every side. The songs in this album sounded more melodic and well structured though there are some parts which the tone changed unpredictedly, however they were able to create it to make it is still well kind listening in the ears. While The Rev did his own job; in this album he showed that he was not only relied on the speed but also had many technics in order to fill his drumming. Furthermore, the man played much different than the two previous albums — in the City of Evil The Rev’s drumming sounds uniqe and is unpredictable. Besides, he made some parts and drove the songs sounded like those were hard to be played, yet those songs are easy listening.
I think, the most difficult part on The Rev’s drumming is in the City of Evil album. There some technics which are hard to play due to those are so fast — some others sound difficult becuase The Rev was able to create such of the unpredictable tone to make it sounded much more colorful.
Due to the ability, The Rev was regarded as one of the best Drummer ever. It is not overstatement since there were some drummers inspired by him; while The Rev himself had much inspired by the other drummers such as Mike Portnoy. I still remember that a former drummer of Bullet For My Valentine band, Moose — when he tried to fill drum on his new song named Breaking Point, he atmitted that the reason he got the idea was because The Rev drumming. Unfortunately, I forget on what song Moose was getting inspired by him — if I am not mistaken, it was on the Almost Easy song.
Talikng about a song named Almost Easy, many people still discuss about it. The song itself is regarding as one of the best part which The Rev ever played to. Furtermore, one of the famous part in that song was when he did a double ride thing. By this technic, he managed to equalize the cymbal ride and the double bass within fast tempo as well as in the same time; and that technic later became his characteristic as a drummer.
Avenged Sevenfold once showed a video of The Rev during he recorded Almost Easy drumming. The way how he played was smooth especially when he did the “double ride thing” which he reapeted it three times in the song. What made it more amazing was the man only needed one time session to record the song — and he just killed it way easy.
The existance of The Rev on the drum made Avenged Sevenfold have such a characteristic. Alongside with Synyster Gates and Matt Shadow as well as the other members; the man created his own creativity to make the listener realized that this kind of drum playing was The Rev’s. He was on his own typical side which taken from his inspiration ones like Mike Portnoy.
However, even though Avenged Sevenfold are well known as Metal Band, yet they are still good in playing some of smooth songs. Especially The Rev; he was that capable to set himself playing drum of some smooth songs like Sieze The Day and Dear God. Moreover, the way on how he filled every single beat on the drum set was not like the oher common smooth song — and that made songs like Dear God or Sieze The Day look much more colorful. You can hear them and try to focus on the drumming so that you would get what I mean here.
Being a musician means you have to look steps forward and take as many the inspiration as you can. And if your music genre is Metal, know that it is not enough to be inspired on Metal songs only. If you do, it is possible that your music would be less colorful. Try to learn any genres and then try to make it becomes your own version; trust me that your music will be much more fun and people might interested on it. It is called as the improvement — every musician needs to improve himself/herself in order to lead him/her to be on the top.
The Rev was and is still the example for any drummers today. What he took for learning and what he gave toward his band were phenomenal. Remember that he was not a drummer but also a composer as well as a song writer for Avenged Sevenfold. Yet, he knew what his role in the band, so that he learnt much from the other drummers to improve his ability. His legeacy from the first album until the last one before his passing were the evidence on how hard he had been trying to improve his skill. By improving, he realized that his superiority was not only about speed; he realized that he had such a good technic to be combined it to his amazing speed. I think, in some of Avenged Sevenfold songs where The Rev played the drum, there were some parts which sounded a bit like Dream Theater band songs, that were drummed by Mike Portnoy. Well, it was not something new since one of The Rev’s inspirational drummers was Mike Portnoy.
As Mike Portnoy is one of the greatest drummers in the world — even once he was nominated as the best drummer — The Rev grew up and took something from that guy to improve himself. Know tgat he was not only learnt about how to drumming well; the man also learnt much on how performing well on the stage. The way he played drum on the stage was so energetic which may the audience enjoyed the show.
Even though The Rev has passed away in 2009, however he had driven Avenged Sevenfold to be one of the most famous bands in the world. He made an identity to the band so that people might know the characteristic that they own. By having a characteristic, it makes people aware that this kind of music belongs to such a band. And the band will be remembered as later in the future they might have become faded gradually. Yet, the songs are still remain as days keep passing by.
The reason why The Rev is still remaining especially for those who big fans of Avenged Sevenfold — this because he a strong characteristic as well as an awesome quality on playing drum even playing the piano. Besides, he was not only a drummer for that band — he was known as a composer, backing vocal and a song writer as well. These have led him to be a true musician though he has passed away for a long time ago.
“There is nothing left behind when we die unless memory. What we have done in living will stay much longer. And even though people forgot us behind, yet the memory keep on living, time by time. So, before we die, make sure that we would leave such a memory — and the very best memory is when people keep talking kindness about us though we are no longer exist in this world.”
