Check out the text by M. Shadows
Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows posted a rant on social media about the band's new album "The Stage," which was released on October 28th. Shadows' rant comes in response to comments on various websites that the new album, released as a surprise, didn't sell as well as other Avenged Sevenfold albums, and the musician had commented that he had 'mixed feelings' about it.
Check out his full statement:
“One thing I’ve noticed in recent years is that websites that rely on clicks to make money tend to love narratives that benefit them. You see it in politics and now you see it on Megal. I admit I find these sites amusing and I don’t hate or dislike the people who run them or their visitors. None of this is meant to be taken too seriously, but when I keep receiving the same articles with this false narrative about Avenged Sevenfold, I feel it’s time for me to speak out.”
This is in no way directed at our fans. Looking at the comments on those sites makes that obvious. This will undoubtedly be seen as "justification for the album" by people who hate A7x. And that's okay, we don't play for them. So let's understand this.
76,000 copies sold in the first week by a Heavy Metal band in 2016 is supposedly a failure (in the US only). In reality, 76,000 copies on a surprise release with zero promotion and a single that had been out for 13 days with an 8:30 duration is a failure. This kind of talk is crazy and is exactly the kind of narrative that contaminates the failing music industry. This is exactly the kind of conversation that pressures the artist to write songs around "what works financially" and not "what they really want to create." People want difference. People want innovation. People want art. If it weren't a huge risk, everyone would be doing it. I haven't seen the Hip-Hop or Country music community questioning Jeezy or Kenny Chesney about why they didn't sell more albums and crush a Heavy Metal band with a surprise release by more than 3,000 copies. Sure, we sold less than "Hail To The King," but we feel that this time it's a different circumstance.
When “Hail To The King” was released, Apple Music didn't exist. Now it has around 15 million subscribers. Spotify has 40 million subscribers today. And when these sites try to sell you streaming metrics, it's a bit more complicated than that. There are many studies done on why rock doesn't get as many streams as hip-hop. You need 1500 streams to make an album. Who has time to stream a song like The Stage or Exist that many times? Those two songs alone reach 25 minutes. So should we write 3-minute songs so we can get more streams? No. That's ridiculous.
When I said I had “mixed feelings” about the results, I simply meant that there’s a part of me that knew a traditional release would have been easier and we could all have paraded around with another meaningless number 1. But “mixed feelings” in no way indicates that I think this was the wrong way. I love that we did this for the fans. I love that we did this for our sanity, and regardless of how you feel about the music, there’s no doubt that this was exciting. Anyone with a brain knows that judging the merit of an album by its first week of sales is simply madness. Man, I’ve never judged an album based on sales, period. But, I’m not you, and you have to make your own decision. I just want other artists to be themselves and not be shy about new ideas just because some things work and others don’t. Regardless of this rant, I want the fans to know that we’re not going to change. Evolved albums, fantastic live shows, and playing our way, without ever hesitating. We've never felt so much love at a release and we're truly grateful. See you on the road!
M
Note: What will the clickbait title be this time? Let's bet!