M. Shadows on the Surprise Release of Avenged Sevenfold’s The Stage: “I Don’t Know if it Was the Greatest Plan in the World”

It would appear that after briefly taking a stand against math, Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows has returned to his senses. You may recall that after Avenged Sevenfold surprised the world with a new album, The Stage, this past December. Although releasing an album with no prior warning works if you’re Beyoncé, it didn’t go so hot for A7X, delivering the band’s lowest sales figure in years.

Now, in n a new interview with Full Metal Jackie, Shadows has discussed the band’s decision to go the surprise release route, and… well… everything he says actually makes sense (transcription via Blabbermouth):

“We’re just trying to figure out new ways to get music to people, to excite the fanbase. Also, people have shorter attention spans now with the way information comes and goes so quickly on the Internet. We’re just trying to figure out the puzzle. And one thing that we really didn’t wanna do was be months out [from the album release] and just keep releasing singles and really just getting on people’s nerves with all the promotion. So this was just another way to do it. I don’t know if it was the greatest plan in the world, but I know it was a plan, and it was different, and it was exciting to us.

“But I just talked to a few radio stations today and there’s radio DJs that got [the] ‘God Damn’ [single] for the first time, and they’re, like, ‘Yeah, so the new record’s coming out, huh?’ And I go, ‘No. The record came out four months ago. And they’re, like, ‘Really? Why are we just getting a single now?’ So there’s a lot of explaining to do, I guess. Part of this Metallica tour is gonna be us getting in front of the people and making our case for, ‘Hey, this is a cool record and you should check it out.’ Or that it exists at all.”

Sooo… yeah. It’s cool to try new things, and it was cool of A7X to take a risk, and it sounds like they learned their lesson. And it’s worth reiterating that sales of The Stage are still mighty impressive — they’re just low by the standards of the last few A7X releases. But still. Everyone learn from their mistake and don’t release any more surprise metal albums, okay?

Get upcoming A7X tour dates here and here.