Avenged Sevenfold surprise released its newest album The Stage, and the album didn't do that hot. Frontman M. Shadows tried to rationalize the whole thing and then blasted the media for pretty much reporting on exactly what happened. The album sold even worse in its second week, and that was basically that.
Now in an interview with Full Metal Jackie of 95.5 KLOS, Shadows says the surprise release plan maybe wasn't the best idea in the world. He adds that band has since given out singles for radio play, and the DJs they're giving them to had no idea Avenged Sevenfold even released a new album in the first place.
"We're just trying to figure out new ways to get music to people, to excite the fanbase. Also, people have shorter attention spans now with the way information comes and goes so quickly on the Internet. We're just trying to figure out the puzzle. And one thing that we really didn't wanna do was be months out [from the album release] and just keep releasing singles and really just getting on people's nerves with all the promotion. So this was just another way to do it. I don't know if it was the greatest plan in the world, but I know it was a plan, and it was different, and it was exciting to us.
"But I just talked to a few radio stations today and there's radio DJs that got [the] 'God Damn' [single] for the first time, and they're, like, 'Yeah, so the new record's coming out, huh?' And I go, 'No. The record came out four months ago. And they're, like, 'Really? Why are we just getting a single now?' So there's a lot of explaining to do, I guess. Part of this Metallica tour is gonna be us getting in front of the people and making our case for, 'Hey, this is a cool record and you should check it out.' Or that it exists at all."
The surprise release plan has since not worked out for Northlane either, so maybe the format doesn't work in metal?
