Synyster Gates

Synyster Gates dazzled me long before I cared who he was. As Avenged Sevenfold's lead guitarist he was shredding at a frightening level while still a teenager, later landing at number nine on Guitar World's all-time metal list and twice voted the world's best by Total Guitar. But raw speed is not why I rate him. It is the jazzy phrasing, the theatrical melodic sense, the willingness to tell a story rather than just sprint up the fretboard. The musician's bloodline shows. He is a technician who never forgot the song, and I expect more astonishment from him.

Name (English)

Synyster Gates

Name (Japanese)

シニスター・ゲイツ

Reading

しにすたー・げいつ

Born

July 7, 1981 (age 45)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Rooster

Origin

Huntington Beach, California, United States

Occupation

guitarist / songwriter

High school

Mayfair High School

• Official sitehttp://www.syngates.com
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synyster%20Gates
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B7%E3%83%8B%E3%82%B9%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%84
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q342526

Tags

• California
• guitarist
• songwriter

Last updated

2026-06-17

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.