Vocalist discusses strategy
Avenged Sevenfold released their latest album, "The Stage," last October without warning anyone. The band didn't announce the date in advance and didn't release any singles before the surprise album launch, except for a music video revealed shortly before "The Stage" hit stores.
"The Stage" ended up having one of the band's lowest sales figures in years, but the band continued to defend the strategy, saying they were looking to do something different.
In an interview with Full Metal Jackie this week, vocalist M. Shadows discussed the release again. Here's his statement:
“We were just looking for new ways to get our music to people, to get our fans excited. Also, people have a much shorter attention span these days, with so much information coming through the internet. So we're just trying to figure out the puzzle. And one thing we really didn't want to do was release singles months before the album, to get into people's heads with so much promotion. This was a different way of doing it. I don't know if it was the best plan in the world, but it was a plan and it was different, and it was fun for us.”
But I spoke to some radio stations today, and there are radio DJs who just got the single "God Damn" and they ask, "So, when is the album coming out?" and I say, "No, the album came out four months ago," and they say, "Really? And why did we only get the single now?" So we had to explain a lot of things. And part of this tour with Metallica now is us getting in front of people and explaining, "Hey, we released an album that you should listen to." Or at least know that it exists.".