Avenged Sevenfold Lets You Get Uncomfortably Close in VR Concert

Technology’s pretty crazy, right? But never mind all the soul-crushing AI bullshit that’s running rampant these days, let’s talk about virtual reality. Those headsets have gotten smaller, cheaper, easier to use, and for Avenged Sevenfold, they’ve become the perfect avenue to express themselves in a VR concert experience.

Ever the futurists themselves, Avenged Sevenfold have teamed up with AmazeVR to release a new virtual reality concert experience somewhat blandly titled Avenged Sevenfold VR Concert: LOOKING INSIDE. Released exclusively to run on Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest headsets (sorry Vive, Valve Index, PlayStation VR2, etc. users), the experience aims to let fans get wayyyyy up-close-and-personal as the band rips through five songs. In addition to the performance, it looks like there’s some more interstitial moments and scenes that kind of elaborate on the song in a more visual way.

Vocalist M. Shadows said this collaboration with AmazeVR was an opportunity that the band just couldn’t pass up.

“Being able to combine the best aspects of what a live show and technology offers is what excites us the most about our VR concert, and what we’ve created with the two is pretty compelling. Lots of our fans already know the intricacies of our performances, but I think they’re going to be blown away when they can get closer than ever before.”

The entire experience includes the performance of five tracks: “Hail To The King,” “Nightmare,” “Nobody,” “(D)eath,” and “Mattel.”

According to some initial fan reviews found online, the experience ranges from either “I really enjoyed it. I already wanna watch it again” to “It’s a cool concept but I was left uncomfortable. It’s a lot of face to face, deep eye contact with M. Shadows. If I could just back up 10 feet from the band it would be amazing.”

You can check out the experience in the trailer below and if you’ve got the right hardware, you can jack into the Matrix right now.