Nightmare (song)

Overview

Lyrically, "Nightmare" deals with an individual who is damned for his wrongdoings on earth. The song is sung from the point of view of a resident of hell, who may have once been a living person too, mocking the other character and pointing out that it's his own fault he's in hell. It is their first single released without former drummer The Rev, who died on December 28, 2009. The song was released digitally on May 18 and 21, 2010 on the US and worldwide, respectively, on iTunes as well as an animated lyric video on YouTube, which received over 275,000 plays in 24 hours. A preview for the song was released on May 6, 2010 on Amazon.com, but was removed soon after for unknown reasons. However, on May 10, 2010, a 30-second audio uncensored sample was again revealed, but this time at SoundCloud.

"Nightmare" was nominated for Best Single at the Kerrang! Awards 2010, but lost to Liquid Confidence by You Me At Six. The song is also one of Avenged Sevenfold's best known, and had been certified Gold by the RIAA.

"Nightmare" was released on July 27, 2010 as a downloadable track in Rock Band 2 along with Seize the Day and Scream. It was discovered by fans that the face of Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan, the band's deceased drummer, can be seen on both the single and album cover. "Nightmare" is an easter egg in the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops. It is accessible by completing the One Giant Leap Achievement or Trophy. The song was released for Rocksmith on October 30, 2012.

Reception

The song was the No. 1 most added track at Active Rock radio in the US during one week of May 2010. It was also the No. 1 rock song on iTunes in the US (and also in the UK), selling over 23,000 units in its first day. The song Nightmare became the most Radio Played rock song in the USA of 2010, with over 35,000 spins.

Music video

The band has filmed a music video for "Nightmare". To film the video, they hired the famed video director, Wayne Isham, who has worked with bands such as Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi and Metallica. The video itself was filmed at Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles, California. The music video premiered on July 17, 2010, on MTV2, at 11 AM EST, and on Avenged Sevenfold's website. An unedited version of the video premiered later on that day. The video can be seen on the band's official YouTube page.

The video depicts lead vocalist M. Shadows about to undergo surgery, when the surgeons take him out of the room on a gurney. Shadows then notices the torn-down former drum kit of the band's deceased drummer, The Rev, when he toured with them to support their record City of Evil. The surgeons move him through halls and he sees the members of Avenged Sevenfold acting mentally insane, such as lead guitarist Synyster Gates continually banging his bloody head against the window of a door, bassist Johnny Christ crawling on the ceiling, and seeing rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance in a straitjacket, and later waltzing with a skeleton, as well as disturbing images of children playing and soaked in blood. The video shifts between this and the band performing in a black environment with a small bit of background light. Towards the end of the video, M. Shadows begins to fight the gurney, wanting to get off, as they wheel him toward a room being led by two young boys. He cannot get off because he is strapped to it. He is wheeled into a room, where the last drum set The Rev toured with Avenged Sevenfold with is set up with a light behind it, morphed into The Rev's figure. The video does not feature Mike Portnoy playing drums, this was decided by Portnoy himself as he wanted it to be all about Avenged Sevenfold and seeing as how The Rev wrote most of the drums for the album. Portnoy thought it would be wrong to have himself in the video. The music video is based heavily on the infamous scene from Jacob's Ladder where Jacob Singer is being pulled on a stretcher through hell. This was because the band knew this was one of The Rev's favourite movies.

Many homages and tributes are shown through the video. For instance, The Rev's City of Evil tour drum kit has spiders crawling on it, just like in the "Afterlife" video, except that the spiders were on The Rev's face. Additionally, while filming the music video for "Afterlife" The Rev stated his arachnophobia. Another example is during one of Zacky's scenes where he is waltzing with a skeleton. This is also shown in the "Afterlife" video, except that he is dancing with his then girlfriend (now his wife). Other smaller references to Avenged Sevenfold's videos are The Priest from "Seize the Day" and patients faces stretching, like in the "Bat Country" video.

Track listing

1. "Nightmare" — 6:16
2. "Nightmare" (Demo) — 6:05
3. "Nightmare" (Instrumental) — 6:03

Chart position

"Nightmare" debuted and peaked at number 51 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, on the week ending August 14, 2010, the song re-entered at number 83 due to the release of the album.

Personnel