Nightmare!
Album Nightmare rampung setelah kepergian The Rev.
Lalu Matt Shadow mencari lagu yang pas untuk dijadikan hits. Dan pilihan jatuh ke lagu "Nightmare".
 Nightmare dikarang oleh Matt Shadow.
 Nightmaretidak berkaitan dengan Jimmy.Matt suka lirik lagu ini dan
mempertahankannya untuk masuk album.
 Nightmare diciptakan sehari sebelum ia menikah. Dimulai dengan kalimat "It's Your Fucking Nightmare" saat ia mengendarai motor sepulang dari bermain basket. Dia mulai menyanyikannya di Blackberry miliknya dan pulang kerumah untuk mengerjakannya dan membuat ia terlambat datang ke pernikahannya yg diselenggarakan di Palm Springs. Nightmare adalah singel pertama A7X yang paling banyak diputar di Radio.
  Aku pikir "Nightmare" adalah lagu pembuka yang bagus. Mereka (Avenged Sevenfold) melakukan hal yang luar biasa." -Mike Portnoy-

Welcome to the Family
Details blurry lost him to early....    "Ini tentang hal yang terjadi dikehidupan seseorang, dan kehilangan Jimmy menjadi acuan dalam lagu ini."
-M. Shadows-
  “Welcome to the Family” — "Kami sadar, dari awal semua orang pernah merasakan ini. Ada seseorang yang sangat dekat yang akhirnya meninggalkannya. Kami tahu perasaan kalian. Selamat datang di hidup kami. Lagu yang menyentuh, ini adalah lagu tentang bagaimana Jimmy datang secara musik, dan aku yakin Jimmy mengucapkan “welcome to the family” ketika dia memainkan demonya. Lalu kami menulis lirik dan membuat lagunya seperti sekarang." -Johnny Christ-
 "Welcome to the Family" benar2 dimainkan oleh Jimmy saat demo. hanya openingnya saja yang terdengar berbeda." -Mike Portnoy-
 Jimmy "The REV" Sullivan yang menciptakan "Welcome to the Family".
Danger Line
Remind the lord to leave his light on for me...I'm free.
This song was originally to be on the concept album also. They kept it on this album as it was.
  According to M. Shadows this song is a story about a soldier. It starts with his family, through combat, and ends with his death on the battle field.
 "The marching-cops intro was on Jimmy's demo. That took me the longest to chart out. It was a very synocopated intro."
-Mike Portnoy-
  The whistles at the end of the song were performed by the Whistler who also did the whistles for the movie "Kill Bill".   Synyster Gates performs the whistles live.

Buried Alive
Hold on to faith as I dig another grave....   Buried alive is one of the strongest songs we have ever written. We weren't sure about it until it was done, then we were, like, "Oh my God, what have we done?" -M. Shadows-   Larry Jacobson the bands manager thinks Buried Alive it's the best song the band has ever written.
 "It's me copying Jimmy's, with me already having a bit of my style. That full-circle thing happened alot." -Mike Portnoy-

Natural Born killer
I'm begging you to walk in my shoes anytime.

It is my  understanding that Natural Born Killer has a basis in the movie of the same name.
  "Those single-stroke rolls in the intro were all The REV. I copped his parts almost entirely on the grooves. The only things that are me are the little splash and cymbal fills. I'm doing each time before the vocal phrasing. The double bass and driving downbeats and upbeats--those are all Jimmy's patterns. I only added the nuance fills. Jimmy sang on the original demo, as he did on many of the demos." -Mike Portnoy-

So Far Away
Your pain is gone, your hands untied....
The lyrics were entirely written by Synyster Gates as a letter to Jimmy.
  So Far away Syn originally set out to write for his grandfather following his death.
  Syn actually has a demo that he and The Rev did at 4 o'clock one morning when they were drunk, They were singing the chorus (How do I live without the ones I love?) and it was done acousitically.
  It was my first time writing lyrics, I don't know what the fuck I think about them, but they're exactly what I feel about Jimmy, who he is, and all of that kind of shit.
-Synyster Gates-
  "This song was written for Jimmy. You really feel how tragic the band's loss is." -Mike Portnoy-
God Hates Us
You'll find out sooner that it's best if we just know our place....

This is probably the heaviest song we've ever done, its an evolution of where we could've gone after "Waking the Fallen".
  God Hates Us was created when Matt was watching a storm outside his window. It wasn't long after Jimmy's death. He was really kinda flipping out over Jimmy's death that night and so what came out of it combined with the storm was this very angry song.
  "Once again, I was following the demo. I just had to slam down the patterns."
-Mike Portnoy"
   "God Hates Us" is a guilty pleasure song for the band. It takes them back to their roots, "Waking the Fallen" era.
Victim
Collage of broken words and stories full of tears, remembering your life cause we wish you were here....   Victim was originally part of the concept album plan.
  After Jimmy's death they kept the music but wrote lyrics to reflect the day they found out he had died and the funeral scene.
  "It just speaks about the surroundings, and the house, and eveyone's mood and then it just speaks about the day."
-M. Shadows-
  "Victim" discribes the day Jimmy "The REV" Sullivan passed away.   The  backup singer for this song is a lady named Charlotte. Charlotte does the background vocals for Whitney Houston.
 "Victim" orignally was 13 minutes long.

Tonight The World Dies
Find me on my better days to loose me once again....
The guitar in "Tonight the World Dies" was performed by Synyster Gates father. The talented Guitar Guy Brian Haner Sr.

Fiction
I hope you'll find your own way when I'm not with you....
 Originally the song was entitled Death but was later changed to Fiction by the band.
 Fiction was originally written by The Rev during the Pinkly Smooth era.
 The Rev finished Fiction 3 days prior to his own death.
 M. Shadows states that they never record vocals during demoing a song but for some reason The Rev did for this particular song.
 The Rev's actual vocals were used for this song on the album.
 The Drum tracks were originally put down by The Rev but they were performed on an electic drum kit at M. Shadows home studio. M. Shadows says they weren't usable for the actual recording of the album but that Mike Portnoy was instructed to copy The Rev's tracks as close as he possibly could.
  "Fiction to me is up there with "A Little Peice of Heaven". It's got this swingy, evil waltz vibe. It's all piano, and strings, with no guitars or bass, and its got this horrifying open and deep lyrics. I dont' think any other metal band would write a song like this and we'd have never come up with it without Jimmy. If I believed in God I would feel blessed to have this on the record.
-M. Shadows-
 When "Fiction" came to fruition in the studio as a duet between Rev and shadows we were more than thrilled. Its a very special and magical moment. -Synyster Gates-
  M. Shadows had this to say about the song in the Revolver special A7X edition, like when does this ever happen in history? A guy dies pretty much predicts his death in asong and says goodbye in the song, and the song gets released with his vocal on it and sings a lyric that's supposed to be a demo scratch.
  "This track is 0ne-thousand-percent Jimmy." -Mike Portnoy-   "Fiction is a piano peice written by The Rev 3 days before his death. It's like Nothing I've ever heard. It's very eerie and haunting."
-M. Shadows-
  "There’s a song on the record, “Fiction,” that he’d written for his side project band many years ago, and he never finished it. Literally about three days before his passing he had finally finished it, and recorded the last part of the song. What he sang was basically saying goodbye to all his friends, and all of us. It’s hard to listen to, but outside of that it’s just a beautiful, well-written song that only Jimmy could have written, and only Jimmy could have sang those parts. Matt went in and just tried to finish that idea with the lyrics, and I think he did a great job." -Johnny Christ- NOTE: The following Exerpt from Chris Epting's essay "The Rev's last works evoke tears" I believe is very important to include here. I too have heard the chatter related to this beautiful gift of song being a suicide note. Please read what Mrs. Sullivan (Jimmy's Mom) has to say about it. She knew him best of all so please stop spreading these horrible rumors. Jimmy's Death was an accident nothing more nothing less. He would be saddened to hear the things I have heard I'm sure as most of us would be. Here's  what Jimmy's mom had to say about Fiction:

"I would like to take a moment to talk about the song 'Fiction.' It has saddened me to see so many questions and comments from the fans wondering if this might be a suicide note from Jimmy, and realizing they are missing the point. Remember that this was originally a 'concept' album about worst nightmares. This song, that Jimmy originally titled 'Death,' contains the hopeful thoughts of a person dying, but the effect on the listener was Jimmy's worst nightmare ... loved ones left behind suffering. It is really ironic that the guys had to record it and we have to hear it after losing Jimmy. He loved life, and was really looking forward to recording and touring again with his best friends."

Save Me
A Moment seen through those eyes crystal blue disguise....

The very first word of the song which is Skull was performed by Jimmy "The REV" Sullivan. M. Shadows said they found it in some of the demo's. They have no idea what it meant to Jimmy but it sounded good on this song and they wanted to include him in the album as much as possible.

"Save me is like our metal version of  "A Little Piece of Heaven". It's 11 minutes long and it goes everywhere. It has an awesome dueling guitar intro, an amazing drum pattern Jimmy wrote and and it shifts from minor to major keys continually. The ending is almost like Elton John on steroids."
-M. Shadows-
  "It's my favorite drumming on the album." -Mike Portnoy-
 "Save Me" is M. Shadows open letter to Jimmy.   Jimmy told his mom that "Save Me" was his masterpeice.
  Jimmy played the opening drum riff for "Save Me" at every practice for about the last 3 yrs before it was used on this album.
  The members of A7X said on the Revolver extras that they worked on this particular songs vocal melodies  for probably 6 months.