Avenged Sevenfold have shared a heartfelt cover of Pink Floyd's classic song "Wish You Were Here." It's the latest in a long line of new material released by the Califonians over the past several months as part of their expansion iniative for last year's album The Stage, which they'll treat to a deluxe edition this December. Previously, the band took on Mexican folk song "Malagueña Salerosa," Mr. Bungle's "Retrovertigo," Del Shannon's "Runaway" (a collaboration with Vandals guitarist Warren Fitzgerald, featuring lead vocals by Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance), the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and the Rolling Stones' "As Tears Go By." They also unveiled a trippy original song, "Dose." Check out the black-and-white performance video for their "Wish You Were Here" rendition above.
"This is the song that started us down the rabbit hole with our recent cover recordings," frontman M. Shadows says of Avenged Sevenfold's Pink Floyd take. "I've always loved this song, and though I felt it would be impossible to capture the somberness of the original, we approached it with another purpose. There's a poignancy to the song that seems appropriate with everything going on in the world today. We put a bit of a modern twist on it to reintroduce it at a time when it might help capture what some of us are feeling."
Due out December 15th via Capitol, Avenged Sevenfold's expanded version of The Stage contains the aforementioned covers plus "Dose," as well as four never-before-heard live tracks recorded their show at London's O2 Arena earlier this year: "The Stage," "Paradigm," "Sunny Disposition" and "God Damn." Early next year, the band will hit the road with Breaking Benjamin and Bullet for My Valentine for a North American tour behind the release.
