M. Shadows , vocalist of Avenged Sevenfold , recently reflected on the impact of rock music and its supposed "decline in quality" in recent years.
On Twitter, the musician wrote: “Controversial opinion: sampled drums and the 'loudness war' were the biggest contributors to the decline of rock and metal. The listener doesn't need to know exactly what that is to subconsciously feel it. Rock shouldn't have 'pop' production.”
Later, M. Shadows returned to Twitter to say that Random Access Memories , the 2013 album released by Daft Punk , was "brilliantly produced and mastered," showing that pop production, in his opinion, is great when done for pop music.
Avenged Sevenfold is working on the follow-up album to The Stage (2016). In February of this year, drummer Brooks Wackerman revealed that the new work was “90% done” and that the public can expect something different from anything Avenged Sevenfold has ever presented.