Avenged Sevenfold's comeback record Life Is But A Dream has been divisive to say the least. Gone are a good chunk of the Avenged Sevenfold metal tropes of yesterday, replaced by lounge music and progressive metal passages. Personally, I'm a big fan but I can also why folks were let down by the record.
So how does Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows feel about the mixed reviews? He's into it, because hey – everyone's talking about his brand new record, and friction in the fanbase means people care enough to argue about it. Also, clearly not that many people hate it considering it debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200.
"With our new record right now, all you see are 10-out-of-10 reviews and zero-out-of-10 reviews. But it's the best way to be because the people that hate it absolutely hate it. It's one of those things where, in 2023, having a zero out of 10 is actually better than anything you could ask for, because people are talking, and it's a weird society we live in at this point."
"All artists can do is be a reflection of themselves at any point in time. There's nothing worse than when people are trying to put you in a box and want you to write the same music you wrote when you were in high school or 20 years old. Those were reflections of who we were back then; we were aggressive, young kids that were just kind of all over the place making a certain type of music. And every record kind of changed. But this one in particular — much more musical in terms of not having to have one foot fully in metal. It's got so many different eclectic influences that we've had our whole life that we never really were able to kind of quantify.
"Like if you think about The Residents or Mr. Bungle, all these different things that we were growing up listening to. And I think is just where we're at right now. It's a different type of record. The philosophy, all of it, is different, and so it's not gonna appeal to people that want the same thing or more of the same or they're there in their life right now. It doesn't mean they're not gonna get here. Maybe they're just not here right now. Maybe it's our job to put our arm around them and say, 'Hey, we're up the street at this bar. And let's hang out here. This is what we're doing now.'
"There are so many psychological things that go into if people like records or not or if they don't or what they're listening to at the time. And it's not really our job to figure that out; it's just our job to put something out that we totally back and we appreciate. And we'll see where it goes. It's hard to really talk about it, 'cause there's really no right or wrong answer. It's okay to hate this record."
Avenged Sevenfold might ditch full albums and go down the singles path in the future, so stay tuned! There could be more weirdness coming, albeit in shorter bursts. Catch Avenged Sevenfold at one of the dates below, and get your tickets here.
