Avenged Sevenfold Going In 'Completely New Direction' With New Album

Avenged Sevenfold are taking their sound in a "completely new direction" on their forthcoming album from their 2016 record "The Stage", according to frontman M. Shadows.

The vocalist spoke to Kerrang! About the progress on the new record and explained how it is different musically. He said, "The record sounds nothing like The Stage - it's a completely new direction, and it sounds nothing like anything we've done. That's all I'll say about it: it's over the top, and it's very eclectic and wild!"

The band is making progress on the record, but they do not plan to release it until they can hit the road to support it. Shadows said, "No one wants to put out the record if we can't tour it.

The reality is - and no-one wants to hear this - in this day and age, rock'n'roll just takes too long to make: you know, it's going to be a three-year record to make. And if we put that record out and then we're locked down for another year, as much as people don't want to believe this, they are not going to give a sh*t about a record that came out a year prior when it's time to tour.

"And so if it's going to take us two or three years to write a record, we're not going to put it out if we can't go play it live. We know the anticipation won't be there when the tours come around.

"You see it every day - if you look at iTunes or Spotify and see how quickly it all turns over, it's just weekly onto the next thing and onto the next thing again.

"If you just imagine putting out a record in August, and then you're not touring until next August, people don't want to hear this but they're not going to care; they're going to be like, 'What's next?'

"Once the Gojira record, or the new Metallica record, or the new Megadeth record comes out, they're not going to care about what came out the year prior.

"Our whole thing is: if it's going to take us three years to do a record, we're going to make sure we can play it live and people are going to be excited about it."