AVENGED SEVENFOLD's M. SHADOWS “couldn't care less” about your opinion of his band's music: “we're not making art by committee”
15-04-2025
In a new interview with Rock Feed, AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows addressed the experimental nature of the band’s latest album, “Life Is But A Dream…” Written and recorded over the span of four years, it was produced by Joe Barresi and AVENGED SEVENFOLD in Los Angeles and mixed by Andy Wallace in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. The album is a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming.
Regarding how concerned he and his bandmates were about the fan response to “Life Is But A Dream…”, M. Shadows said: “Dave Farrell from LINKIN PARK — we were at dinner probably a year ago and we were talking about ‘Life Is But A Dream…’, and he said… We were in this really nice restaurant and there was a bunch of people around. And he says, ‘If you were to take your record right now, or any record that you love, and show it to everybody here, how much weight would you put behind any of these people’s opinions?’ And the answer’s zero.
“And so, at the end of the day, we’re not making art by committee,” he explained. “This isn’t art by committee. It’s not, like, everybody give us your ideas and we’re all gonna kind of morph the same thing. We have A.I. to do that now; you’re gonna be able to take your favorite records and A.I. can spit out something sort of like it. But you need artists and creatives to keep pushing the boundaries. Some things are gonna work, some things aren’t. But at the end of the day, even if something doesn’t work, it might spark in someone else, ‘Oh, that was bold. Where can I push limits a little more?’ And I think that’s how this whole space thrives. And so for me, I couldn’t care less about other people’s opinions, but one rule I made myself a long time ago is I listen to the positivity equally to the negativity, meaning I don’t care about either. If a review is a 10 out 10, cool. It could be bought and paid for. Cool. It doesn’t matter. If it’s a zero out of 10, it also doesn’t matter. So I think that you can’t just walk around with all your good stuff and then ignore the bad. You have to kind of ignore them both, in my opinion.”
AVENGED SEVENFOLD will embark on a European tour in June 2025. The 12-date trek will consist of appearances at some of the continent’s biggest rock festivals, including Norway’s Tons Of Rock, Czech Republic’s Rock For People and Greece’s Release.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD says: “Europe, we told you we’d be back for more. We are looking forward to playing some new countries we’ve never been to before in some stunning unique venues. Everything from a historical prison in Lithuania, to a gorgeous limestone quarry in Sweden — we can’t wait to have a special evening together.”
Confirmed dates:
June 07 – Athens, Greece – Release
June 11 – Hradec Králové, Czech Republic – Rock For People
June 14 – Vienne, France – Théâtre Antique
June 16 – Milan, Italy – Carroponte
June 18 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – Križanke
June 19 – Budapest, Hungary – Budapest Park
June 21 – Berlin, Germany – Zitadelle Spandau
June 22 – Wroclaw, Poland – Hala Stulecia
June 24 – Vilnius, Lithuania – Lukiškės 2.0
June 26 – Seinäjoki, Finland – Provinssi Rock
June 28 – Oslo, Norway – Tons Of Rock
June 29 – Rättvik, Sweden – Dalhalla
In celebration of Halloween 2024year, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has shared its cover of another classic MISFITS song, “Halloween”. The track came just five days after AVENGED SEVENFOLD released its cover of MISFITS‘ “Skulls”.
Watch “Halloween” and “Skulls” below.
In 2023, guitarist Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman released their version of “Astro Zombies”, while 2022 saw them reworking “Last Caress” and Halloween 2021 marked the release of a version of “Hybrid Moments”.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD launched the 2024 leg of the “Life Is But A Dream…” North American tour on March 6 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. The band’s 2024 run included AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s first-ever performances in Manchester, New Hampshire; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Newark. The group performed in Des Moines, Iowa for the first time in 18 years; Cleveland, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the first time in 15 years.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD has been touring in support of its latest album, “Life Is But A Dream…”, which sold 36,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart. Written and recorded over the span of four years, it was produced by Joe Barresi and AVENGED SEVENFOLD in Los Angeles and mixed by Andy Wallace in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. The album is a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD made its first festival appearance in five years on May 19, 2023 at Welcome To Rockville at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s first concert since June 2018 took place on May 12, 2023 at AREA15 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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.
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