In vista del tour che prenderà il via prossimo anno, la testata
Nation Multimedia ha fatto due parole con il nostro Matt.
Non ci sono molte domande ma spaziano su molti argomenti: da come si sente la band a tornare ad esibirsi a Bangkok, dell'evoluzione del loro sound, quali direzioni prenderanno in futuro, quanto si sentono vicini alla loro band, qualche parola sulla chiusura di Deathbat News, e quale è il ricordo a cui è più affezionato parlando ancora di fans.
Avenged Sevenfold returns to Bangkok after two years and another several millions albums sold
Fans of hard rock are prepped and ready for a third descent on Bangkok by the hyper-energetic American band Avenged Sevenfold on January 20.
The Californians with the eerily apocalyptic name got their start in 1999 and over he course of six albums have earned a rep for musical diversity that matches the thrill of their live performances.
What began as full metal jacket on their debut CD "Sounding the Seventh Trumpet" in 2001 evolved into a broader rock feel by their 2005 release (and first on a major label), "City of Evil". The exploration of fresh sounds has continued despite the 2009 death of drummer James "The Rev" Sullivan. The next album, simply titled "Avenged Sevenfold", cemented their mainstream success.
Drummer Mike Portnoy, formerly of Dream Theater, was signed up for No 5, "Nightmare", in 2010, which debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, but it was Arin Ilejay sitting at the kit by the time "Hail to the King" came out in 2013.
To date, the band's six studio albums have sold more than 10 million copies, so a round of applause, please, as lead singer M Shadows joins us for a chat about the upcoming Thai gig.
How does it feel to be coming back to Bangkok again? Your last gig here was two years ago!
It feels good, man. Last time was a blast. We really had a good time all over Asia, but Bangkok in particular. I loved the food, loved the people.
It's a treat for us getting into the other part of the world, because lots of the time we tour Europe, and America constantly.
Tell us about the evolution of your sound.
It's been a journey to become better songwriters. We're one of the bands who've never been happy with the final results. We always want to strive for something different every time we put out a record.
"Sounding the Seventh Trumpet" was like a bunch of kids in guitar class taking risks together, with a lot of energy and teenage angst. For "City of Evil" we were getting a little bit crazier and wanted to show off some more shocks. And for the white album ["Avenged Sevenfold"] we wanted to produce and mix something with more groove and sentiment.
For "Nightmare", which was when we lost Jimmy, we just wanted to incorporate everything that had brought us to that point. It's like, when we go to the bar and go to the jukebox, you want to pick a couple of big anthem-rock songs. That's why I like being in this band, because we've never tried to repeat ourselves.
So I'll say we've changed tremendously since the first album, but we keep in mind that we want to try and do something different, rather than doing a common thing.
You've incorporated several rock elements into your music along the way. Which direction do you foresee in the future?
To be honest, that can be pretty vague to answer. Right now, the way the industry is - with streaming and illegal and legal downloading - there's really no pressure on us to do anything apart from what we want to do.
We won't really try to do something that we have to prove to ourselves we can do. We've done that and accomplished it. Now it's like we're always exactly opposite from what we did previously. So we want to do very "Avenged Sevenfold music" that doesn't sound like anything else we've done.
Why did the fan site Deathbat News close down last month?
Deathbat News wasn't run by us but by a girl who ran it for seven years. Honestly, people are getting the news other ways now. They get it in quicker doses such as Twitter, Instagram and other websites that take bits and pieces of the interviews from her site so people can scan them really quickly.
She was annoyed that her news was being stolen from her site, but also because people just didn't take the time to read the articles. So she called me and told me she was giving it up.
We let her do her thing and she did a great job, but now we have a void to fill, which we're working on right now, and we'll have some core thing coming out next year.
You won an award in 2012 as "the band with the most dedicated fans". Just how close are you to the fans?
I think we get really close through the music. We try to do things that we think will excite them.
We always used to say we made the music for ourselves first and we weren't interested in what anyone else thought we should do, and I think all my favourite bands have done that. But, in terms of getting out there and doing the shows, we always appreciated our fans.
Our attitudes have changed. Now it's all about the fans. Punk bands and the hardcore bands are all about the fans. That's what we learned and what we try to achieve.
What's been your best fan experience so far?
I would say it was in Montreal, at the first show after the Rev passed away. And all we saw were signs about Jimmy and the place was packed. And we all knew that the fans had come out to show love and support and sympathy.
We knew then that everything was going to be all right. It was really nice.
How about a word for the Thai fans?
I'm not really good at selling myself, but I would say we're going to play a nice, big, long set. We don't get to come out there as much as we'd like, so it's going to be a big celebration of music, and we're ready to bring it after four months off. We've been re-energising our batteries to be able to really kick ass.
The first time we were in Bangkok there were a lot of technical problems. The second time we had a blast, but I feel like this third time is redemption for that first time. We want to make up for that.
We're glad the fans have stuck with us and we're looking forward to a big, long night of rock and roll and heavy metal. We would like to thank all the fans for supporting us!
Trumpets ready
Avenged Sevenfold bring their world tour to Impact Arena on January 20.
