10 Best Metal Ballads Of All Time

For a brief moment, it felt like Avenged Sevenfold were one of the unstoppable forces in modern metal. Taking bits and pieces from metalcore and incorporating the classic sounds of old school hard rock, albums like City of Evil and their eponymous record created hits that sounded retro and oddly refreshing at the same time. However, no one's going to stay young forever. In fact, these guys had to grow up real fast.

Going into the recording of their album Nightmare, things were going smoothly until drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan died of a drug overdose during production. The Rev wasn't just any old drummer either, being both the lifelong friend of M Shadows and a mammoth force behind the kit. Deciding to finish off the record in Sullivan's memory, Avenged came through with one hell of a tearjerker on So Far Away.

Written towards the tail end of the sessions, you can hear the pain these guys going through trying to hold themselves together in the face of death. From the way that Shadows is singing to the strumming guitar style throughout the verses, it's almost like you're standing around a campfire as they try to communicate with their former musical brother from beyond the grave. Though mortality may be a finite thing in life, messages like this may have the power to outlive us all.