Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates and bassist Johnny Christ recently surprised their fan Andrew by showing up at his house and delivering him a signed guitar. Andrew looks beyond stoked, and of course Gates and Christ look like they're having a blast.
According to vocalist M. Shadows, Avenged Sevenfold plans to finish their long-awaited new album in February and begin mixing in March. Shadows recently clarified that the only holdup for the album is flying to Prague to record strings, and revealed that the new record is "very influenced by Kanye West," in that he pulls from great artists that Avenged Sevenfold isn't normally influenced by.
"There are so many influences… We're very influenced by Kanye West. The thing about Kanye is that he is pulling from such great soul music. I didn't grow up with that stuff — my dad listened to Boston and Alice Cooper [and] I didn't get that taste of black music and old soul. So, diving deep into jazz musicians… We're not trying to do a jazz record, but the chord changes and progressions are so eye-opening to us."
