M. Shadows has offered a major update on Avenged Sevenfold‘s highly-anticipated next album.
This week, the frontman confirmed that the band are close to finishing up their next LP despite delays amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
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It’s been over four years since Avenged Sevenfold released their last full-length album The Stage. Since then, they’ve gone on to digitally release their live album Live In The LBC and Diamonds In The Rough for the first time. Then, back in December, M. Shadows finally opened up about the band’s next album. As it turns out, fans can expect a collection of songs they’ve never heard from Avenged Sevenfold before.
“You know, it’s always been about when it feels good,” he said. “We’ve been writing a record for a while, and most of it was already written. But then we kinda took a break on it, and then it would be like, ‘Hey, let’s get together two days this week,’ instead of five or six. It just started getting more casual…Well, we’ve had strings on every record, but the [new] record sounds nothing like The Stage. It’s a completely new direction, and it sounds nothing like anything we’ve done. That’s all I’ll say about it: it’s over the top, and it’s very eclectic and wild!”
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Now, M. Shadows has revealed that Avenged Sevenfold are about 70 percent finished with their next album. During a recent interview with Minnesota radio station 93X, M. Shadows shares that the band still have quite a few things left to finish when the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
“We’re working on stuff,” he says. “We have pretty much 70 percent of the record done. We have some things we can’t finish right now because of COVID [like] string players, et cetera. We know Andy [Wallace, mixer] doesn’t wanna travel, or his management doesn’t want him to travel because of COVID. So there’s just a lot of things going on.”
Although Avenged Sevenfold’s new music is almost finished, it may be a while before fans get to hear it. M. Shadows further explains that they don’t want to release any new material until they can tour again.
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“It doesn’t make sense for us right now to put out a record and not be able to tour it,” he continues. “The world has changed. Putting out a record on Spotify without touring for a rock band, it just doesn’t make sense to us. So we’re gonna wait till everything is back, then we’ll come out with the record, finish it up, and all will be good.”
Last month, Avenged Sevenfold treated fans to some new music. This time around, however, they weren’t alone. The band teamed up with punk icons NOFX for their explosive collab “Linewleum.” The track, which pays tribute to the NOFX classic “Linoleum,” appears on NOFX’s new album Single Album which debuted on Friday, Feb. 26.
M. Shadows’ full interview with Minnesota radio station 93X is available below.
What are your reactions to Avenged Sevenfold almost finishing their new album? What do you expect to hear on the new LP? Let us know in the comments below.