Avenged Sevenfold's new album will arrive in 2023. At least that's the timeline bassist Johnny Christ provided for the band's long-awaited follow-up to 2016's The Stage, which they've been working on for the last several years. Until now, the band's members have been pretty vague about when their eighth album will actually see the light of day, but in a new interview with the Sailor Jerry Podcast, Christ made it clear that next year is the one.
"At this point, the finish line is visible," Christ said. "We're getting it all wrapped up...we're looking at sometime next year, we're gonna be dropping the record. That's not news to anybody. It's gonna be sometime next year."
Back in the spring, A7X frontman M. Shadows said that the release date was wavering between the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023, but that was after it had already been pushed back unexpectedly from what initially seemed like a 2022 release date. Christ's straightforward language should put fans at ease; the record is coming next year.
At another point during the interview, Christ revealed that A7X once again worked with producer Joe Barresi on this opus, who previously worked with the band on The Stage, and notably produced Slipknot's new album THE END, SO FAR.
"He just did that Slipknot record, the new Slipknot record, which is incredible," Christ said, as transcribed by Blabbermouth. "He's always worked with TOOL. He's an unsung hero, in a lot of ways. He's not one of those big, flashy names as a producer, I don't think.
"The Stage was the first record we worked with him. We had a great time working with him. He's awesome. He can really get into it in the studio with getting the right tones and the right sounds. You go to his place in Pasadena and all those pedals and everything he's got … 'What kind of sound are you looking for?' And he pulls out about 10 different things to get that sound until you get it. And you run it through. It might take you four hours to lay down a five-second part, but it's worth it every time — it's worth it."
"I think one of the important things… Obviously, what he does, just engineering and getting the right tone every time, his knowledge of that over the years is just so great," Christ added. "He brings a lot of what he's learned over the years into a modern way and makes it new every time. I love his sounds; he's so brilliant at getting 'em. But moreover, as a producer, just having… You're working with someone for hours upon hours, that personality has gotta be there. And he's just got this even-keeled fucking demeanor about him always. It's relaxing.
"When you start feeling all the pressure, he's just still right there with you. And I think that that's such an important, underrated thing for a producer, to have the right personality in there. If we were in there with someone that was high energy or wanted to butt heads back at any point, the records wouldn't get done. We're too stubborn. I'm just being honest. We're way too stubborn. So he just works perfectly with us… He's become a very good friend too. He's an awesome dude."
Elsewhere in the interview, Christ talked about why Avenged Sevenfold took so long to make this album compared to other ones.
"This is the first time we did a record in parts," he said. "Usually we write it and demo it out at home, however long that takes until we feel good about it. Get into pre-production and then for three months — actually less, three months were back when the budgets were a lot bigger — probably about a month we'll get in the studio and just lay down the tracks. And that's the end of it, we go mix and go master it.
"We had to do this one in chunks for several different reasons. COVID played a part, being able to get string players together was an issue. Also just life. We just wanted to take our time with it. You come in and do drums for a couple weeks, then you take some time away and we come back and start laying down guitars. Then bass, get the orchestra on it, then it's time to get Matt. In between each of those we were taking a break.
"It's not like, oh we're just going to tell the fans to wait. No, it's not like we're posturing or anything. We want to finish the record and make everyone happy, too, but we want to be happy with the product and happy with our lives. The last few years really put into perspective, at least for myself, I don't want to speak for everybody in the band, of what's really important. We love our band, we love our fans. Our families have gotta be number one, though. Even over less career as a band."
See the full interview below.
