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AVENGED SEVENFOLD TRANSFORM ‘THE STAGE’ INTO AN EVOLVING ALBUM
AVENGED SEVENFOLD are transforming their new album THE STAGE into an evolving body of work by adding a series of new tracks over the course of the coming months. Today sees the release of the album’s first new addition: an electrifying cover of Mexican folk song “Malagueńa Salerosa”.
Praised by Rolling Stone as “the most aggressively bonkers music of the quintet’s career,” THE STAGE hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock, Hard Rock and Alternative Albums charts, No. 4 on the Top 200 and debuted Top 5 on iTunes in over 35 countries. The album’s title track hit Top 5 at rock radio and its companion video has amassed over 17.3 million YouTube views to date.
“We’ve said all along that we want The Stage to be a different and exciting listening experience,” says vocalist M. Shadows. “For us, the idea of turning an album into a living piece of art and adding new installations is really intriguing. It expands the journey.”
That journey begins by crossing the cultural divide with “Malagueńa Salerosa” which is Avenged Sevenfold’s first-ever Spanish-language release. Says guitarist Synyster Gates, “I’ve always loved that song. There have been a few interesting interpretations over the years, including Chingon’s version from the Kill Bill Volume 2 soundtrack. That’s a great example of how a timeless song can be made relevant with a creative modern take. The structure, arrangement and incredible vocal work of their rendition was inspiring.”
Though they originally planned to record the song in both Spanish and English, the band decided to forgo the latter in favour of the traditional version. “We wanted to do the song justice,” says M. Shadows, “and that meant singing in its original language. It was difficult, but I worked on it for weeks and had a Spanish-speaking friend come over daily to go over pronunciation. I also brought him to the studio to produce the vocals. It was important to me to get it right.”
THE STAGE, available HERE, is the band’s 7th studio album and first for Capitol Records. Co-produced by A7X and Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool), THE STAGE is a work of immense scope and ambition, featuring 11 panoramic tracks tied together by an Artificial Intelligence theme. Inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Elon Musk, the album is the band’s first thematic release. Its epic 15-minute-plus closing track, “Exist,” features a guest appearance by award-winning astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson giving a spoken word performance he penned specifically for the album.
Guitar World, who spotlighted Gates and Zacky Vengeance with a cover story, lauded the disc for being “the most surprising and ambitious album of their career.” The Guardian and NME each gave it four stars, with the latter calling the album “their best yet,” adding that “they’ve truly arrived.” Q called it the group’s “boldest album yet” and Classic Rock called it “a metal masterpiece.” Avenged Sevenfold recently released a video for a second album track, “God Damn,” which already has 3.3 million views.
The band is currently performing select songs from the album on their stadium summer run with Metallica as well as on their own series of special headline shows.