Avenged Sevenfold Issued a New Mix of “Mad Hatter” After Fans Complained

Being able to tuck your tail between your legs and admit wrongdoing in the face of undeniable evidence is an admirable quality that very few people possess. But Avenged Sevenfold did just that when they heard fans complaining about the mix on their latest single, “Mad Hatter,” then decided to fix the problem and issue a new official mix.

I haven’t seen the initial fan complaints, but from what I can gather from A7X vocalist M. Shadows’ response the problem was one that very commonly affects mixes and masters these days: over-compression, resulting in distorted tracks. Shadows took to Reddit (Reddit, of all places, further showing his commitment to making this right!) to apologize, offering a free, direct download link to an uncompressed .wav file:

“Hey Guys and Gals – I hope you are all doing well. I just wanted to update you on a situation with ‘Mad Hatter.’

“We saw some complaints about the mix and we totally agree with you! We were pushing the limits in a lot of different ways and once the compression of streaming services and radio got a hold of it the clarity became muddied.

“I heard it on the radio and was like, ‘Oh shit!’ The good news is we live in a world where you can quickly fix your mistakes and we have done just that. On Monday, all streaming services and radio will switch to this new version with more clarity but we wanted you to get it here first.

“Check out this link. We hope you enjoy and have a great weekend. -M”

Baller, right? The internet may suck for a whole lot of reasons — let’s not kid ourselves, it’s a fucking wasteland — but sometimes it can be a really, really neat thing for music.

Have a listen to both versions below, with the original mix on top.

[via Ultimate Guitar]