Avenged Sevenfold have released another installment in their "Breakdown" video series, where singer M. Shadows and lead guitarist Synyster Gates chronicle in painstaking detail the recording process behind standout cuts. This most recent clip focuses on the track "Mad Hatter," from their recently released EP Black Reign, which compiled the songs A7X have contributed to the video game franchise Call of Duty. Shadows explains that the band wanted to venture into new territory for them, aiming for a "darker, more cerebral, alternative vibe." "We wanted to do something dark at the beginning with acoustic guitars, clean guitars," he says. "What we ended up with was actually a play on the vocal melody." The two musicians run through isolated bits from the song's introduction, highlighting pedals and methods used to achieve the ominous atmosphere.
When they begin dissecting the song's percussion, Shadows recalls going for a "big Led Zeppelin" sound and encouraging drummer Brooks Wackerman to "run circles around this beat." They move into the off-kilter breakdown section of the song before isolating untreated vocals, giving fans an inside look at the natural, raw sound of Shadows' voice. The focus then shifts to Gates' solo, which Shadows calls "probably the most unique solo I've ever heard [Gates] do." Drawing inspiration from several songs he was listening to at the time, the guitarist was able to achieve a saxophone-like sound for the part. The episode wraps with Shadows' assertion that "Mad Hatter" is "definitely a simple song on the surface, but when you kind of get under a couple layers, there's a lot of shit."
