AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s M. Shadows spoke to Finn McKenty of “The Punk Rock MBA Podcast” about the band’s upcoming studio album, “Life Is But A Dream…”, which will be released on June 2. Regarding the LP’s musical direction, the singer said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’ve said it to a few people — the thing I keep getting back is Abbey Road-esque. It’s just different. It’s got a bunch of flavors and colors. We don’t stay too long anywhere; it’s in and out. It’s a different mindset — completely reworked from what we think of as records and how they should be made. And what I mean by that is [AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s previous album, 2016’s] ‘The Stage’ is a sprawling sort of vibe the whole time — it’s got a thing going on — but this one, we were, like, ‘We wanna express ideas quickly and more concise. And we wanna use different ways that we’re using our instruments.’ A lot of people think the record’s full of samples — or even [the recently released first single] ‘Nobody’ — but there aren’t any. That’s all stuff we went in there and actually crafted ourselves.”
Elaborating on THE BEATLES comparison he alluded to earlier, M. Shadows said: “I think this record is BEATLES-esque in the way that it’s trying to do a bunch of different things and have a bunch of different flavors. That’s what I’ll say.
“Without going too deep, ’cause I know people will take some of this and just really worry themselves [laughs] — they’ll be very worried — I just want people to sit down and listen to it, and I want them to just be shocked, take it in, be happy, smile, feel uncomfortable,” he explained. “There’s all sorts of flavors on it. And I think it’ll be interesting when it comes out. I’m super proud of it. I love it. But ‘The Stage’ was one sort of vibe. And the vibe on this one is that you can’t really get locked in anywhere. It’s kind of always making left turns on you.”
Earlier this month, AVENGED SEVENFOLD released “Nobody”, the band’s first new single since 2016. The song’s accompanying music video was helmed by award-winning director Chris Hopewell and can be seen below.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD will support the release with two massive live shows this summer, at Kia Forum on June 9 and Madison Square Garden on June 23. The newly announced arena concerts mark AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s first proper New York City on-sale appearance since 2007 and their first Los Angeles County headline on sale since 2009.
“Nobody”, the band’s first official music release since their 2016 album “The Stage”, delivers nearly six minutes of tension, groove, and dynamics. The song twists and turns beyond conventional songwriting and leans in on discomfort before letting go. The beautifully crafted stop-motion music video, which unfolds like a short film, is a stunning and powerful journey exploring the dichotomy between life and death, love and war, and follows the main character through an existential crisis. Stop motion is a handmade labor of love, often taking 90 minutes just to capture only two seconds of footage.
Prior to the track’s release, the band launched an elaborate and mysterious digital scavenger hunt with puzzles, ciphers, images, and blog posts all written by Chat GPT, DALL-E 2, and AI voice modifiers. What was initiated as a cryptic hacker campaign on socials, eventually lead fans to a web site full of challenges to complete over the past two weeks that ultimately lead to the single being “unlocked” for release.
The sprawling sound of “Nobody” is reflective of “Life Is But A Dream…” . Written and recorded over the span of four years, “Life Is But a Dream…” was inspired by the writing and philosophy of Albert Camus. Accordingly, the lyrics are rooted in existentialism and absurdism. Always on the cutting edge of music and technology, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has partnered with Berify to include an NFC tag with bonus content on all CDs, vinyl, cassettes and official merchandise sold on A7XWorld.com. Additionally, the cover art and packaging are by renowned artist Wes Lang. Bold and multi-layered, the band’s new album promises to be their most daring.
To date, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has sold over 10 million albums worldwide and earned two consecutive No. 1 albums on Billboard‘s Top 200 Albums chart (2010’s “Nightmare” and 2013’s “Hail To The King”) to go along with over a billion video views and a billion-plus Spotify streams, as well as multiple No. 1 singles on rock radio. The band is equally known for their spectacular live shows, selling out arenas and headlining the world’s most prestigious rock festivals.
