Avenged Sevenfold Shares Unreleased Song, 2008 DVD to See Digital Release


Metalcore legends Avenged Sevenfold will release their 2008 DVD/CD concert album, Live In The LBC & Diamonds In The Rough digitally and on vinyl for the first time via Warner Records next month. The vinyl version is releasing on February 7, And will include five additional tracks; Live In The LBC out digitally March 6th. Check out the previously unreleased track “Set Me Free” right now! Pre-orders have also gone live at the link below.Continue reading


Audio: Avenged Sevenfold New Song – Jade Helm, For Call of Duty Black Ops 3


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Avenged Sevenfold have released a new song, their song, ‘Jade Helm’, from the soundtrack of the new Call of Duty Black Ops III video game. You can hear the track at this link or below.

 

The band released a statement about making the track:

We are proud to announce our involvement in ‘Black Ops 3.’ Treyarch asked us if we would like to create a score to accompany a portion of the multiplayer soundtrack and we gladly accepted. On November 6th you can pick up a copy of the game and check out our instrumental score entitled ‘Jade Helm’ while you play Multiplayer or in your personal bunk inside the Safe House of the Campaign.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops III was released on November 6 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

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in an interview with Chris Jericho for his podcast the band recently announced Brooks Wackerman (Bad Religion/Suicidal Tendencies) as their new drummer. Singer M. Shadows commented about the addition of Wackerman replacing Arin Iljay who was dismissed this fall.

To be honest, Brooks’ name has always been in the mix. It was one of the names we were throwing around when Jimmy (Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan) passed away in terms of who was going to step up for ‘Nightmare.’ We felt Mike [Portnoy, ex-Dream Theater drummer] was the right choice and we still feel that way. Mike just destroyed on the record. He was perfect. But at the time, our tour manager brought up Brooks’ name as well. But at the time he was also busy with Bad Religion and it was also… people were going to look at it differently because he was a punk drummer at this point.”

Avenged Sevenfold is currently working on a new album for 2016, their seventh which will be the follow up to 2013s Hail To the King (Warner Brothers).


Avenged Sevenfold Announces Dismissal of Drummer Arin Illejay


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In a post to their website today, platinum selling rock band Avenged Sevenfold have announced the removal of drummer Arin Illejay from their line-up effective immediately. The band blamed creative differences on the split. There is no further word at this time on his replacement, but the message speaks of “sharing plans soon” on what is next for the band. Illejay has joined the band in 2013 following Mike Portnoy’s stint on the drum throne, recording Hail To The King (Warner Bros.) album.

 

 

Avenged Sevenfold’s statement on Arin Illejay


Hello Everyone –
We are writing this to inform you all that we will be moving forward without Arin IIejay as our drummer. Arin has been nothing but a positive energy and monster drummer for us over the past 4 years. We love the guy and always will. We are and will always be grateful to him for helping us to move forward through some very dark times. Creatively though, we felt we needed to move in a different direction. While we can’t say more at this time, we are excited for the future and looking forward to sharing our plans soon with the greatest fans in the world. As always we appreciate your understanding and unwavering support.

With Love –
Matt, Zack, Brian, Johnny

 

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Avenged Sevenfold – Hail To The King


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Juxtaposing the careers and fortunes of Avenged Sevenfold and Metallica showcases a multitude of similarities. Both had early releases (Sounding The Seventh Trumpet/Waking The Fallen vs Kill ‘em All) that, while their respective genres (metalcore and thrash) were in their formative years, set the template for others to follow. These were followed by seminal recordings that took each band beyond the movements they’d previously been attached to (City of Evil and Avenged Sevenfold vs Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets) by creating anthems and developing their distinctive sounds and styles, nodding to the scenes that had spawned them, while moving (way) beyond them. Both bands suffered tragedies by losing much-loved and respected band members and responded with dark albums, littered with lengthy complex songs (Nightmare vs …And Justice For All).

And then Metallica released Metallica (aka The Black Album) which, for those who don’t know the story, established its protagonists as the most popular metal band on the planet, bar none, and far outsold any other metal album. By millions. At the same stage of their career, 22 years later, Avenged Sevenfold may have released The Black Album II.

Taking the same approach that Hetfield and Co did on their eponymous album, Hail To The King sees A7X simplifying their songwriting and focus on massive, straight-forward big riffs, powerful choruses, cavernous 4/4 drumming and producing great Rock/Metal songs. Much has been said of the way Hail To The King wears its influences on its sleeves, and much of what has been said is fair, but to write off Hail To The King as a covers album, or to undermine what A7X have done here, is missing the point. This is an incredibly strong album.

In an age where fillers populate mainstream metal albums that are structured like pop releases around a couple of singles, there are no weak moments amongst the 10 songs, with tracks as deep as #8, the Clairvoyant-esque ‘Coming Home’, a highlight with its melodic headbanging guitar refrains inducing the involuntary Claw as it builds to crescendo. Then track 9, ‘Planets’, wades in, dark and crushing. Hail To The King is littered with anthems at every turn, from the fist-pumping, stadium-filling title-track, the GNR sleaze of ‘Doing Time’, the black crunching slabs of the sinister ‘Requiem’, the riff every new bedroom guitarist will learn first, ‘Shepherd of Fire’ and the saccharine tones of the piano and strings led radio-hit-in-waiting ‘Crimson Day’.

Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance pull off that oh-so-elusive feat of meting out leads and solos that are both memorable and enhance the song, in a way Mustaine and Friedman did in their prime, while M Shadows convinces, dominating the album like Axl Rose or Sebastian Bach used to, putting in the strongest, most genuine performance of his career.

There are more than clear nods to Metallica (‘This Means War’ is a re-write of Sad But True), Guns N’Roses (‘Doing Time’), Countdown To Extinction-era Megadeth (‘Heretic’) and Iron Maiden – there are full on headbangs in their directions – but through it all, this is undeniably an A7X album.

Until now, I’ve never been much of an A7X fan, but credit is more than due, it’s been earned. They set out to write a classic metal record and they’ve not only succeeded in doing that, they’ve written the classic metal album of their generation. Underground and extreme this isn’t. Big, mainstream and filled with metal anthems for a new breed of the wretched and divine, this most certainly is.

Avenged Sevenfold on Facebook

8.5/10

Steve Tovey