Avenged Sevenfold “Don’t Feel Comfortable” Releasing a New Album Until They Can Tour Again
Avenged Sevenfold’s most recent album, The Stage, was surprise-released at the end of 2016, following a protracted legal battle with the band’s former label… and that didn’t go so good for them. So, understandably, they wanna make sure they do things right next time — which, they say, means they won’t release a new record until they’re confident they can tour to support it.
The news comes from a message A7X sent out to fans on their e-mail list last night:
“First and foremost, we hope everyone is being as safe as they possibly can out there. As you know, we are living through unprecedented times.
“This moment has taught us a lot about the fragility of being a human being and how quickly the world in which we took for granted could be flipped upside down.
“Many people are in a tough spot as they grapple with their health and livelihoods. We are all dealing with this in our own ways.
vFor us, we have taken an inward approach. Spending large amounts of time with our families has been the silver lining.
“It has also given us the time to meticulously work on music and other projects. The truth though, is that it has been incredibly hard to record the way we want. For instance, the drum room we required for the album was shut down due to protests outside the building for weeks.
“String sections and outside musicians have still not been able to be recorded due to Covid-19 restrictions. We are not willing to sacrifice the sound we are going for to work around this. We will wait. There are other issues on the horizon but we are documenting it all for a later release when we can tell the whole story.
“At the end of the day it wouldn’t matter anyway. We don’t feel comfortable working on an album this long and then releasing it with no tour in sight. Part of the music we make needs to be expressed through live interaction.
“While we appreciate the artists who are attempting ‘live streams’ and other events, it just isn’t the way we are choosing to roll this thing out. All of this may change in the future. We are going through this with all of you and feel frustrated as well.
“The good news is we also feel recharged and stronger than ever as a unit. We feel the music we have created is _______. Just because we aren’t updating everyone at every step doesn’t mean that we aren’t working. The news gets tiring. Social media gets tiring.
“Everyone on the food chain fighting for attention and relevance seems trivial. We have chosen to shut our mouths, dig deep and give you something that we feel can add to the collective human conversation. At the end of the day the music will come when it comes. Until then we hope you and your families all stay safe and sane.
“A7X”
Quick aside: why is “live streams” in quotes?
ANYWAY, it seems worth noting that Avenged Sevenfold are, y’know, extremely successful, which affords them the luxury of being able to not worry about income for the time being. If we’re all indoors in 2023, they may change their minds about this.
(Which is not to say ALL their decisions are financially motivated. When the pandemic first started to really make waves earlier this year, the band incentivized fans to stay home and social distance by giving away merch.)
Regardless, even if the band released a new album now, it would be the longest fans have ever had to wait in-between releases — since their divisive self-titled offering in 2007, they’ve put out a new album every three years like clockwork. Before that, they never went more than two years between releases.
Grieve over the weight of the wait in the comments section.
[via The PRP]
