M. Shadows

Matthew Charles Sanders (born July 31, 1981), known by his stage name M. Shadows, is an American singer and songwriter.

He is the lead vocalist and a founding member of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold.

M. Shadows was born on July 31, 1981, in Fountain Valley, California, and raised in Huntington Beach, California.

He is of Irish and Italian descent.

He was raised Roman Catholic.

His sister is former WNBA player Amy Sanders, who is two years younger than him.

His interest in rock was from listening to bands like Guns N' Roses earlier in life after his father gave him his first cassette, and his interest in heavy metal music grew as he became older and began to play the guitar.

He links his early musical experience with the piano as a major factor in developing his skills with the guitar and his voice.

He attended Huntington Beach High School, where he played for a brief stint in a punk band named "Successful Failure".

Following this, Shadows formed Avenged Sevenfold in 1999 along with middle school friends Zacky Vengeance, The Rev, and Matt Wendt.

Shadows, like the other members of Avenged Sevenfold other than Brooks Wackerman, uses a stage name.

In an interview, Shadows says that he chose his stage name because he thought of himself as "the darker character in the group".

The 'M' is in place of his first name, Matthew, which he did not want to be in his stage name because of the way it sounded.

He also added that he and the band took stage names because many other successful musicians that they were influenced by had them (e.g. Slash of Guns N' Roses, Munky of Korn and the members of Slipknot).

Shadows also mentioned in another interview their reasoning behind choosing stage names also came from their intention to "piss people off".

Shadows possesses a baritone voice but is able to sing comfortably in the tenor range, hitting high C on a regular basis.

His vocal range spans nearly four octaves, from D2, and reaching up to A5 - Shadows' highest recorded note to date.

His vocal style has evolved significantly over the years.

On the band's first full-length record, Sounding the Seventh Trumpet, he featured harsh, metalcore-style growls with limited instances of clean vocals.

The release of Waking the Fallen in 2003 demonstrated his progression towards melodic vocal lines, but still retained a strong screaming influence.

Rumors were spread that Shadows had lost his ability to scream due to throat surgery needed after Warped Tour 2003.

However, producer Andrew Murdock put down these rumors by saying: "When I met the band after Sounding the Seventh Trumpet… Matt handed me the CD, and he said to me, 'This record's screaming. The record we want to make is going to be half-screaming and half-singing. I don't want to scream anymore… the record after that is going to be all singing.'"

However, the most significant change came with the release of the band's major label debut, City of Evil, in 2005, which featured minimal background screaming, stronger vocal melodies, and increased emphasis on harmonies and melodic hooks.

Shadows turned to Ron Anderson, a vocal coach who had previously worked with Axl Rose and Chris Cornell.

Shadows was specifically looking to add a more gritty, raspy tone to his voice and worked with Anderson for several months on this before City of Evil was recorded.

This change resulted in newly established vocal contributions from each band member during live performances, and remained prevalent on every record the band has released since 2005.

He also produced The Confession's 2007 album, Requiem, which, according to an interview, M. Shadows was one of the first steps which led to Avenged Sevenfold self-producing their 2007 self-titled album.

He also sings in "The River" by Good Charlotte on the album Good Morning Revival along with fellow band member Synyster Gates with his guitar solo.

He is featured on Steel Panther's 2009 album Feel the Steel and sings a verse of "Turn out the Lights".

In 2012, Shadows and Synyster Gates made a brief cameo in Call of Duty: Black Ops II in which they provided the voice over and motion capture of themselves.

The April 2013 release of Device's self-titled album featured Shadows vocals throughout track 9, "Haze".

He also sang "Nothing to Say" in Slash's self-titled solo album, as well as "Go Alone" in Hell or Highwater's debut album.

He was also featured on Fozzy's album Sin and Bones singing alongside Chris Jericho in the song "Sandpaper".

Shadows has also been longtime friends with David Vonderhaar of Treyarch, the developers of the Call of Duty: Black Ops video game series, for which Avenged Sevenfold have created four original songs.

Also, in June 2013, Shadows competed in the sold out 128-team Call of Duty bracket at MLG Anaheim, placing in the Top 48.

During an interview with Stevie Rennie on October 28, 2014, Shadows mentioned he had intentionally changed his voice to become less raspy and distorted while touring in 2014.

The change was due to longer live shows lasting from one and a half to two hours in support of Hail to the King.

Shadows went on to say that "you better be taking care of yourself or you're gonna be cancelling shows" and "I wanted to hit notes over the rasps".

Shadows has made guest appearances on numerous albums by various artists.

In 2017, Shadows was voted third in the list of Top 25 Greatest Modern Frontmen by Ultimate Guitar.