Avenged Sevenfold
TBC
Warner Bros
2010?

What they’re saying
Speaking to Kerrang! back at the start of December, Matthew “M. Shadows” Sanders discussed the direction the band’s fifth studio album:

“It’s a dark record. The music is emotional. Our goal is to make every single part memorable, we want to evoke reactions live and at home. It’ll have big rock ballads, the big fun stuff, the piano, the choir, the orchestra and all the visual things you expect but with a different, moodier vibe. Lyrically, I’ve been inspired by everything from the ways kids are brought up nowadays, to schooling, the economy, religion, war and the behaviour of our government. It all plays into how kids are so emotionally detached from the real world right now.”

Those comments seem even more loaded in the wake of the death of A7X’s drummer, James “The Rev” Sullivan. On the band’s official website, M. Shadows discussed the new album in light of The Rev’s passing:

“We had just finished writing a record with Jimmy. I can’t promise what the future holds because right now it’s too painful to think about, but we know we need to record and put out this record in honor of Jimmy, for Jimmy. He would call me every night to talk about songs and tell me “this shit is gonna change the world.” I agreed with him, unfortunately I didn’t know it would be on these terms. Please be patient with us for we cannot imagine how hard this is gonna be to get through, we just know we have to do it for his legacy. After that, who knows? But I know Jimmy will help us make that decision when the time comes.”

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Thrash Hits verdict
Following the death of Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, everything about the new Avenged Sevenfold record is up in the air. At the time of writing, we don’t even know of A7X will even continue as a band following the release of the album. With the band self-producing again, reports remain sketchy as to how what stage of the recording process the band had reached at the time of The Rev’s death. As such, it’s impossible to gauge just how big an impact his death will have on the album – M. Shadows mentioned above that they had finished writing the album, but how much these songs could change in the studio is something only the band will know.

For many metal fans, A7X represent something about metal they find hard to swallow: Success. Avenged Sevenfold’s brace of Gold-selling records seemed to rub the metaller-than-thou brigade up the wrong way – how dare these young fellows – who don’t even have beards! – come along and start selling thousands of tickets and records? People deride the Californians as “fake”, or as simplistic musicians – charges that Metal Hammer saw through when it awarded Synyster Gates the inaugural Young Shredder Award at the Golden Gods 2006, and Iron Maiden dismissed when they booked the band to open for them on their 2008 European tour.

We don’t think the naysayers will go away when this album is finally released (Metal Fans + The Internet = Endless Bitching, after all…), but in the wake of the tragedy that befell the band in December, maybe a few of those shit-talkers will take a moment to listen to the album on its own strengths. Who knows? They might even discover that they like it.