Last month, Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows promised fans that the band's new album would be out before they started playing shows again. The Huntington Beach titans have been notably absent from the wave of 2021 tour/festival announcements that started ramping up back in May, but the "Bat Country" singer said that his band was booking shows for summer 2022 — and now we know that as fact.
Today (August 9th), Avenged Sevenfold officially confirmed their first gig since 2018. On June 30th, 2022, the band are set to join Megadeth, Bring Me the Horizon, Killswitch Engage, Kreator and more at the VOA Heavy Rock Festival in Lisbon, Portugal.
That might not be a feasible trip for fans in North America, but the truly exciting takeaway is that the band's follow-up to 2016's The Stage will likely be out in the world by then. In other words, expect the band's eighth full-length to be released sometime in or before June 2022 — as long as everything Shadows has hinted about the timeline remains true.
"It's a work of art that we've worked on for a long time," he said of the to-be-announced album last month. "We had a bunch of personal things that we'll explain later. . .but we're booking shows for next summer, and the record will be out before then."
Considering the current influx of 2021 tour cancellations and COVID-19-related restrictions, it seems like A7X may have made the smart bet to hold off on new music and new shows before things (hopefully) settle down in 2022. Keep your fingers crossed and peep the flier for VOA Heavy Rock below.
Tickets / ingressos: https://t.co/uDyIVRgwD5 pic.twitter.com/AnQzwfBP10
— Avenged Sevenfold (@TheOfficialA7X) August 9, 2021
