Sophie Lloyd has released an instrumental guitar version of Avenged Sevenfold’s “Nightmare”, with a horror video shot by Dean Addison inside a former UK Cold War bunker. The track and video are out now, timed for Halloween.
A medical wing and a possessed guitar
The video is set in the bunker’s abandoned medical wing. Lloyd plays a patient who is subjected to experiments, and her condition escalates until she becomes a demonic figure. The guitarist said she wanted to reference the original Avenged Sevenfold video, which used a mental asylum setting, while changing the ending.
I wanted to pay homage to the original music video by having a mental asylum theme with someone being wheeled along the corridor. But we put our own spin on it, with the patient basically being experimented on so much that they turned into this possessed guitar wielding demon.
- Sophie Lloyd
On the arrangement, she said she worked with chromatic runs and minor-interval harmonies to build tension, and tried to carry the grit of M. Shadows’s vocals through guitar alone.
From a 2012 bedroom cover to Rock In Rio
“Nightmare” was one of the first covers Lloyd posted on YouTube, back in 2012. She said watching that old version next to the new one shows how far she has come as a player and in her career. Avenged Sevenfold have been a favourite since she started playing, and she named Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance as early influences.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD have been one of my favorite bands since I started playing guitar, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance have been very big inspirations to me. Their ability to blend crazy shredding techniques with melodies that truly tell a story is incredible.
- Sophie Lloyd
She has met members of the band at shared festivals, including Rock In Rio this year while touring with MGK, and said she felt called to honour them with the shred version.
A signature Kiesel and a debut album
Lloyd has played guitar since she was nine, building a following from bedroom videos before touring the world as guitarist for MGK, with shows at Madison Square Garden and the London O2, plus festival sets at Lollapalooza, Hellfest, Rock am Ring and Download with her own solo band. She released her debut album “Imposter Syndrome”, became the first female artist with a signature Kiesel guitar, and has worked with Avril Lavigne, Halsey, Jelly Roll, Yungblud, Oli Sykes, Wiz Khalifa and Travis Barker.
Behind-the-scenes footage from the “Nightmare” shoot is available on her Patreon. After a year of touring with MGK, she is working on more covers and original music.
