Metalobit: James Owen Sullivan

The drummer with Avenged Sevenfold, The Rev, has died, the group have confirmed,

James Owen Sullivan was one of the founding members of the band, which came together in 1999. The Rev had been his high school nickname; this, coupled with the band's reference to Genesis often led to Avenged Sevenfold being confused with a Christian outfit in its early days. An appetite for heavy drug use and a songbook drawn from the sort of subject matter considered shocking for American metal soon put paid to that.

In 2004, the band signed with Warners, drawing the sort of investment required to push the band to the Hot Topic shoppers. Their last album, 2007's Avenged Sevenfold, shipped half a million copies in the US and went into the top ten.

Last month, the band started work on a new collection.

The Huntington Beach Police Department say that initial indications are that Sullivan died from natural causes; he was 28 and is survived by his wife.