M. SHADOWS ON NEW AVENGED SEVENFOLD ALBUM, “THERE ARE SO MANY INFLUENCES…”

M. Shadows recently spoke to Metal Hammer about Avenged Sevenfold’s upcoming eighth album stating that, “there are so many influences…” Read the excerpt here and more in the magazine’s latest issue. 

“In January, we’re going in to finish the strings on the record,” Shadows reveals to Metal Hammer. “The record’s been recorded for a year, but we haven’t been able to put the real strings on it, because we couldn’t fly out to Prague. When an orchestra have to social distance and they aren’t sitting next to each other, they can get out of tune, and we have just finally got to a place where we can use this 70-piece orchestra as we intended. We finish the record in February, mix it in March.”

Asked by Hammer’s Stephen Hill for “any little pointers of where the sound of the record is taking you”, Shadows responds “There are so many influences…”

“We’re very influenced by Kanye West,” the singer continues. “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, 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.”