M. Shadows: New Avenged Sevenfold Album to Arrive Before Summer 2022 | Revolver

M. Shadows: New Avenged Sevenfold Album to Arrive Before Summer 2022

Frontman says they'll release 'The Stage' follow-up prior to playing shows again
M Shadows Live 2018  Ollie Millington/Getty Images, Ollie Millington/Getty Images
M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold
photograph by Ollie Millington/Getty Images

Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows has given fans what they've been clamoring for — a timeline on the new record. The "Bat Country" singer has revealed that the long-awaited follow-up to the band's 2016 album, The Stage, is set to arrive before they play shows again in summer 2022. 

During a July 6th appearance on Louder Than Life Festival's Twitch channel, the A7X frontman didn't drop any hints about the new music itself, but he did confirm that he and his bandmates are booking shows for summer 2022, and that they'll be in support of their eighth full-length. 

"The reason we don't say much about the music is because we find that every single word we say about it just gets spun off," Shadows said [via Kerrang!]. "There's no way to describe music; it's like, ​'Oh, it's heavy, it's fast…' What are we gonna say about it?"

"It's a work of art that we've worked on for a long time," he continued, "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."

Back in February, Shadows said that the record was "70 per cent" done, and he also hammered home the point that putting out an album and not touring on it for at least another year is unfeasible for contemporary rock bands. 

"The world has changed," he said. ​"Put out a record on Spotify without touring for a rock band, it just doesn't make sense to us. So we're gonna wait till everything is back, then we'll come out with the record, finish it up, and all will be good."