Avenged Sevenfold Explain Why They “Surprise” Released Their New Album The Stage

Avenged Sevenfold pulled the heist of the century this side of Kim Kardashian’s French robbers when they dropped their new album The Stage last week after previously hinting they’d release an album with a different title in December. Wrestler Chris Jericho’s part in that scheme was equally genius.

Now vocalist M. Shadows has finally opened up about what led them to release their album in such a manner rather than the traditional two or three month run-up in a post on the band’s official website:

Dear friends,

It’s been a while since we have been able to reach out and communicate with you all directly. It’s been a wild couple of years and we can now finally breathe a sigh of relief. It feels great to share with you a secret we have been keeping for a very long time, “The Stage.” We wanted to surprise you all and use this release to usher in a new era for Avenged Sevenfold. The reason we chose to “surprise” release this album is because we have found that a lot of the old ways people are doing things in music have become repetitive and boring to us. Moving into 2017 and beyond we felt it was time to wake up and pay attention to the world around us. We wanted to not only pour our heart and soul into making the music WE want to make, but we want to give you a different and exciting experience. This includes the merchandise we will be making, pop up stores, tour production, how an album evolves and more. We feel the world is moving at a much faster rate then it was even 10 years ago. We want to embrace different ways of listening to music. We don’t care how or where you listen… we just want you to listen! We hope you are as excited as we are about the future music and future shows that are going to be coming up in the next couple of years for Avenged Sevenfold. I know we are working hard to flip the script and make this a fun experience for you.

Now with that being said, you could call me a hypocrite. We have just released the most complex album of our career. An album that you will probably have to hear quite a few times before it fully sinks in. In a world moving this fast there may not be a place for an album like this. I fully understand if people want something that is instant and obvious, but we have found that sometimes the finer things in life take a little getting used to. I have confidence that our A7X family will take the time it will require to fully digest this album. After that, you can decide if you like it or not. The subject matters discussed in “The Stage” are very real, and they are important to us. The music touches us, so we hope it touches you as well. And before I go, I’d like to welcome Brooks Wackerman to the family. He has been nothing but an amazing asset in this insane journey and we look forward to many many more years to come. Thank you guys very much for your patience over the last few years, and we cannot wait to show you the things we have in store. Have a Happy Halloween with your friends and family.

M. Shadows

The Stage is most certainly a “complex” album, WAY moreso than their last one, Hail to the King, which really just paid tribute to ripped off early ’90s Metallica and GN’R. I’m most certainly still digesting. But whatever the eventual verdict is, you gotta hand it to A7X for pulling off the surprise album release. Well done, fellas.