There's nothing Avenged Sevenfold fans want more than a new album. The O.C. metal titans have been talking up their follow-up to 2017's The Stage for well over a year now, repeatedly emphasizing that they wouldn't release it until they were able to play shows again post-COVID-19, and then confirming some gigs for this summer that seemed to mean that their album was on-track for a mid-2022 release. However, now frontman M. Shadows has revealed that due to myriad circumstances, the timeline has been pushed back and we might not get the full record until 2023.
In a new interview with The Bob Lefsetz Podcast, as transcribed by Metal Injection, Shadows broke down the band's plans for the rest of 2022. It's worth noting that A7X recorded the strings for the album back in Februrary with a 78-piece orchestra, and at the time drummer Brooks Wackerman said the record was "90 percent done" — and that it sounds "unlike anything we've ever released."
"Status is interesting," Shadows said on the recent podcast appearance. "We recorded an album, you know, a few years ago. We haven't finished it yet. We kind of took some time off for family, COVID, weird touring circumstances, some changes within our team… And we are still currently with one record left on Warner Brothers Records. We'll be finishing that record up – I think we have May locked out [for when] our producer can get back to work on it, and then we're going to mix with Andy Wallace in August."
He continued, "And then we're going to figure out if it's the first quarter, or fourth quarter, or what we're going to do. So, the status is that, and then we're going to be booking tours, put the tickets on sale when the record comes out, and the whole nine yards."
Listen to the full interview with Shadows below.
