Sophie Lloyd Unleashes Horror-Inspired Guitar Cover of Avenged Sevenfold's "Nightmare"

Sophie Lloyd has turned Avenged Sevenfold's "Nightmare" into an all-guitar horror show. Her new instrumental cover premiered on her YouTube channel on October 22, 2026, just ahead of Halloween, and it comes with a music video that plays like a short horror film, shot inside a former UK Cold War bunker.

Lloyd, the British guitarist who has spent much of the past few years on the road as MGK's touring guitarist, plays the whole song on guitar, M. Shadows' vocal lines included. It's the latest in her long-running series of shred-version covers, and it takes her back to a song she first covered on YouTube 14 years ago.

Sophie Lloyd's Nightmare Cover, in Her Own Words

In a statement released with the video, Lloyd made the seasonal link plain: "Halloween is my favourite holiday."

She also explained why she picked the song and how she approached it: "The song ‘Nightmare’ just embodies the spirit of Halloween to me. I loved exploring how chromatic runs and minor-interval harmonies can create this tension, as well as capturing the grit and intensity of M.Shadows’ vocals and lyrics through an entirely instrumental guitar arrangement."

Why Chromatic Runs and Minor Harmonies Fit "Nightmare"

That comment is a useful window into the arrangement. A chromatic run moves in half steps, sliding through notes that sit outside the key on the way to its target. Over a heavy riff, those in-between notes are what make a line sound uneasy instead of triumphant.

Harmonizing a line in minor intervals does a similar job. Rather than letting every harmony note fall wherever the scale puts it, keeping the second guitar a minor interval away holds the whole part in darker territory.

Both ideas suit the source. "Nightmare" is sung from the point of view of a resident of hell taunting someone who has just arrived, and Avenged Sevenfold built much of their sound on Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance playing harmony guitar lines together.

The hardest part of any instrumental cover is the vocal. A guitar can hit a singer's notes easily enough. Getting the attitude across is the real work, and Lloyd says she was chasing "the grit and intensity" of M. Shadows' delivery. That's the part worth listening to closely.

On YouTube, the track's audio, drums, mixing, production and mastering are credited to @thepainter_1989.

A Horror Video Shot in a Cold War Bunker

The video was filmed by Dean Addison inside a former UK Cold War bunker. Most of the story plays out in the bunker's abandoned medical wing, where Lloyd plays a patient put through a series of disturbing experiments. Her condition keeps getting worse until she transforms into a demonic, guitar-wielding figure. The announcement doesn't name the bunker, so we haven't either.

Lloyd said the concept is a nod to Avenged Sevenfold's own video for the song: "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."

That original video was directed by Wayne Isham and filmed at the former Linda Vista Community Hospital in Los Angeles. It shows M. Shadows strapped to a gurney and wheeled through the hospital's halls past his bandmates. The band drew on the film Jacob's Ladder for it, because it was one of The Rev's favorite movies.

The Original "Nightmare"

Avenged Sevenfold released "Nightmare" on May 18, 2010, as the lead single and title track of their fifth studio album. It was the band's first single after drummer Jimmy "The Rev" Sullivan died on December 28, 2009. Mike Portnoy played drums on the record, and much of the album's drum material had been written by The Rev.

The song peaked at No. 51 on the Billboard Hot 100, still the band's highest-charting song in the U.S., and the RIAA has certified it double platinum. Its harmony leads and theatrical, minor-key mood make it a natural candidate for a guitar-only arrangement.

Synyster Gates, Zacky Vengeance and a 2012 YouTube Cover

Lloyd has never hidden where a lot of her playing comes from. "Avenged Sevenfold have been one of my favourite bands since I started playing guitar, Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance have been very big inspirations to me," she said. "Their ability to blend crazy shredding techniques with melodies that truly tell a story is incredible."

This isn't her first pass at the song: "‘Nightmare’ was actually one of the first covers I ever did on YouTube too back in 2012! So it’s funny going back and watching that one compared to this one and seeing how far I’ve come, both playing wise, and in my career."

That early video, "Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare (Guitar Cover) || Sophie Lloyd", went up on her channel on August 9, 2012, and it's still there.

She has talked about it before. In a Guitar World interview, she said one of the first videos she made was "Nightmare," and that she later watched it with A7X bassist Johnny Christ: "We had a big laugh about it." Watching the 2012 and 2026 versions back to back makes a handy before-and-after for any player who cringes at their old recordings.

Rock in Rio, MGK and Meeting A7X

The new cover follows a year in which Lloyd shared festival bills with the band. "I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of the A7X guys a few times having played some of the same festivals, notably Rock in Rio this year while I was touring with MGK," she said. "They are such lovely, genuine people, so I really felt called to do this song and honour them in this way. I hope I made the guys in the A7X camp proud with this shred version!"

That Rock in Rio date was September 5, 2026, the festival's metal day. MGK played the Palco Mundo main stage that evening, and Avenged Sevenfold closed the same stage after midnight. Before the trip, Lloyd told her supporters on Patreon that she was heading out for the last dates of MGK's Lost Americana tour and Rock in Rio, and that she would try her "absolute best not to fangirl too hard."

With the MGK touring year behind her, her team says she is now focusing on more covers and original music. A behind-the-scenes vlog from the "Nightmare" shoot is on her Patreon.

Watch Sophie Lloyd's "Nightmare" Video

• Watch "Nightmare" (Guitar Shred) on YouTube
• Sophie Lloyd's official website
• Stream her music
• Sophie Lloyd on YouTube
• Sophie Lloyd on Patreon

Our Take

Covers like this live or die on whether the arrangement adds something. The way Lloyd describes it, she treated "Nightmare" as an arranging problem: how to make a guitar carry a vocal's menace with half-step movement and dark harmony, not just how fast she could play it. Add Dean Addison's horror concept and the callback to her 2012 video, and it's a cover with a real story behind it.

If you're working on melodic phrasing, put the 2012 and 2026 versions side by side and listen to how the vocal lines are handled. Then read how Laura Cox went from YouTube to touring guitarist, see our list of the 25 greatest women guitarists of all time, or catch up on more guitar news and music releases.