Avenged Sevenfold’s “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet” on Hopeless Records is one of those album you should not miss if you love hardcore punk music. Some people call this band “goth punk”, in the vein of AFI and the likes, someone thinks this band is “just punk”. I think they totally rock and play amazing music. I talked to M.Shadows quite some time after the release of their CD and this is what came out: a good discussion about music, record labels, punk rock, Orange County in Cali, and all of their influences. - Carlo

Avenged Sevenfold renewed my faith in hardcore, literally. I went to see them their first time through Austin, TX in 2002 and my eyebrows were perked my fists were pumping. Let’s face it, hardcore has been pretty stagnant the last few years and i’ve essentially stopped going to hardcore shows for the same reasons M. Shadows states in this interview. I’m going to be attending every show they play when we’re both in the same town. They are amazing. Aveneged Sevenfold breathes new life into an dying art. - Jon

Interview by Carlo Gironi | carlo@staff.truepunk.com | with M.Shadows.

Hello, how are you doing ?  Very tired but hangin in there.

Can you tell us a brief story of who Avenged Sevenfold is and how you started playing together ?
We were basicly a different band with a different goal when we first started.  It all started off with me and a friend named Matt at school and we wanted to start a hardcore band with punk influences.  So we had my life long friend and neighbor, The Rev., play drums for us.  Then we found Zacky V. from school and he said he’d play guitar.  Soon after we didn’t want to sound like a typical hardcore band anymore and added our friend Synyster Gates to take lead guitar duties.  We had gone through a couple of bass players at the time.  Thats the short cut version of how we got where we are now.

Your latest record “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet” has come out on Hopeless Records, but before that it had been out on Goodlife Recordings: why did you re-release it? 
We rereleased it cause we didn’t have much distro here in America from Good Life and we didn’t like our financial situation being on Good Life since we were basicly going broke.  So Hopeless had interest and we thought it was a good idea so we went with them.

Did you leave Goodlife ? Are you on Hopeless now ?
Yeah!

Why did you choose Hopeless Records ?
At the time Hopeless was the only  label that seemed very interested and actually wanted to work with us that we were interested in as well.  So we talked about it and they are the coolest label to work for and great people so we went with it.  We are very happy right now with that choice

How has been the response of the public for your new record ? I think it is a great album, do you consider it your best ever? 
I think the response has been great.  It’s funny, cause when an album sounds different then everything else, which I think ours does, then it’s hard for alot of people to swallow.  We have the greatest fans in the world as far as I’m concerned, but when you sound different then alot of people like to hate you for that reason as well.  I wouldn’t want it any other way.  The album is selling well and things are growing for us so thats all we could ask for.  It’s hard for us to listen to the record now, so I wouldn’t say its the best ever, it’s our first album and obviously on the next album we have alot of room to grow.  I just think we have grown alot already and it will suprise alot of skeptical people. We are all excited about the new material.

Talking of “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet” , what does the title refer to ?
It refers to the end of the world.  Its in the bible in “revelations.”  When the seventh angel sounds the seventh trumpet the world basicly ends.

You recorded your latest album with Donnel Cameron, who already worked with bands as Bad Religion, NOFX and Pennywise - how was to work with him ? Is he a guy that makes you play every riff or drum beat thousands times ? 
Donnel is a great guy and for us to work with him on our first album was amazing.  We only had five days to record our whole album so he didn’t have time to make us do things over.  Thats why the album is lacking on tightness I think.  The Rev did 9 of his 13 drum tracks in 1 take.  I think when people find things out like that they get a little more respect for this band.  We basicly went in there and recorded the whole album in a couple takes.  I think it sounds great for doing that, but the next album will be a different story.

Do you think you will still work with him for next records or you think it is good to change ? I ask you this because some bands record and produce their albums always with the same man …
I think its good to stay with a producer if you a completely happy with your recording.  We all want to go do our next album with Andy Sneap and I think it may happen so we will be doing something else.  But if you have someone like Terry Date who does all the Pantera albums or someone like that, then I think its good to stay the same.

You mix a lot of elemets, from hardcore to punk and metal, and even some Guns And Roses chords … where do you take your inspiration from ? Where do all these influences come from ?
The inspiration comes from growing up and listening to Rock N’ Roll my whole life.  Bands I’ve listened to since fifth grade and influence me are like Pantera, GnR, NOFX, Bad Religion, and alot of stuff I got into later like Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, Children of Bodom, AFI.  These all take part in our songs and what we sound like.  Our influences are all over the place.

Someone labelled Avenged Sevenfold as “goth punk”, a bit like AFI - do you agree with that label or you do not feel like you’re a goth punk band ? 
I agree with that label.  I wouldn’t say goth punk but I can see where they are coming from.  We do have a dark feel and the songs are dark and alot of the lyrics are as well.  I guess it’s just the vibe we naturally put off.  I like that label too, I love AFI so its a huge compliment.

You come from Orange County, California; what can you tell us about the music scene over there ? From the outside it looks like there are only pop-punk bands, is it really so ?
The scene is huge.  The hardcore scene here is strong, but I think half the kids are elitist little shit heads that don’t like anything but typical mindless hardcore.  But I think 90% of the scene is like that.  As far as punk shows are concerened it seems better.  I don’t go to hardcore shows anymore because of the kids, no one is there for music.  I’ll always go to my favorite bands shows though, cause most those kids wont be there cause the band has fans and it’s not cool to like them anymore.

On your album you are not referring to yourself with your real names but with some kind of “nick names” ; why did you do it ?
There are a few reasons.
1 being that I didn’t want kids to know me as my name.  I think it gives a better vibe to the band.  And I feel when we are on stage we are different people then just the average joe walking down the street, so we needed new names. We just like it. 
2, it is another thing we can do to piss of elitist hardcore kids.  They hate that shit. And I think it’s great when they get really upset and talk shit about it cause it really bothers them.

You have toured so much in the past few months ( with Thrice ) : what was the best thing that happened to you while on tour ? 
We only did 6 days of warped tour with Thrice, so i wouldn’t really call it a tour.  We would love for them to take us out though, they are great guys and a great band.  On tour the best thing is playing nice venues and going over well with crowds and coming back and seeing your fan base grow.

And the worst one ?
Worst thing that happened on tour was our transmission dying and us having to cancell shows and sit in Michigan for 4 days.

Have you got some plans for future tours ? Will you go to Europe, too ?
Yeah we are doing a Mushroomhead, Shadows Fall tour coming up and hopefully we will make it over to Europe within the next year.  I can’t wait to get over there.

How do you see the underground hardcore punk music scene, if there ever is any kind of scene ?
I hate scenes.  I hate kids that can’t even play an instrunment and talk shit on bands that do well.  I hate kids that sit home all day and have nothing better to do then write shit on computers behind a screen.  I graduated high school 2 years ago and when i get involved in the scene I feel like I’m there again.  I love kids that like music for what it is.  If you don’t like it, just don’t listen, cause even if you don’t like a band they are still putting more effort into anything you are doing sitting at home.

I know you have some kind of side project band named Pinkly Smooth; can you tell us more about this band, what you do play and where some one can find info or mp3’s of this band ? 
Thats The Rev. and Synyster’s side project.  you can get MP3’s on MP3.com  but right now Avenged has been so busy with stuff they have basically stopped that band until a later time.

Which do you consider the musical influences of Avenged Sevenfold?
AFI, In Flames, Pantera, Bad Religion, Iron Maiden.

What records are you listening to right now ? Have you got some advice of albums/bands to check out ? New Arch Enemy, Pantera “Cowboys from Hell”, AFI “All Hallows”,  the new Tsunami Bomb,  The Used new CD,  Iron Maiden ” Powerslave”.

Final Comments ?
Thanks for the interview, check out www.avengedsevenfold.com any news or tour dates.