With a few more days to digest this I am still completely flabbergasted.
This band, Avenged Sevenfold, is so...uhm...bad...I can't believe he's doing this.
Seeing how "The Rev" died selfishly in some hotel room - like a useless pill junkie with a stomach full of Percs, Oxycontin, Valium and Xanax - I wouldn't be hanging around with them.
Spend an hour listening to this band, watching them on youtube and whatever else and then say to yourself that Mike Fucking Portnoy is playing drums with these guys. From a band dedicated to creation, musical exploration and the pushing of compositional boundaries to a band that can barely distinguish itself from Metallica, Limp Biscuit (or whatever way they spell it), Good Charlotte, and every other bubble-gum/going-through-the-motions "band" of addicts and losers that'll be forgotten in 5 years (with the exception of Metallica...they just keep making albums because they're gajillionaires and can...and their music is utter garbage...and has been since the day Cliff Burton died).
I pray he's being smart in regards to his mental, physical and spiritual health. I hope he hasn't gotten that taste, any addict knows what I'm talking about, and is making bad decisions. It has all the signs of it.
It's sad, truly.