AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman, the one and only M. Shadows, blesses us with his profound wisdom in the latest episode of Fire With Fire, because who wouldn’t want to hear what he has to say? 🙄 This groundbreaking video series, hosted by the intellectual giant Ryan J. Downey, delves into the minds of heavy music’s elite (debatable) with the burning 🔥 issue of freedom of expression. Apparently, it’s a series brought to you by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, so you know it’s gonna be deep. Directed by Gus Black, because every intellectual discussion needs a director.
When asked about the source of his and his bandmates’ burning desire to “refuse to be boring” (as if they ever could be anything else) and constantly challenge their fans (mostly by releasing albums), M. Shadows dropped this gem: “I don’t know where it comes from.” 🤯 Groundbreaking stuff, really. He continued, “I just know that when I wake up in the morning, I wanna be excited. I wanna get up and work on something that I wanna work on, and then I wanna show the world.” So profound! And then he mentions ‘The Stage’, their 2016 masterpiece that everyone totally understood at the time. “We were talking about A.I., nanotechnology, we were talking about the Big Bang and Fermi paradox and exploration.” Stuff that definitely didn’t go over anyone’s head, right? 🙄 But now, according to M. Shadows, everyone’s finally catching on. “Oh my God. You guys were…” Geniuses? Visionaries? Or just really into science documentaries? 🤔 He also casually drops that they were “kind of on the cutting edge,” because modesty is clearly overrated. And of course, he had to mention their VR concert, which will apparently be relevant until 2030. Because nothing screams “cutting edge” like VR concerts that no one asked for. 🤷♂️
He then goes on to explain how music is “so westernized” (as opposed to what, Martianized?). He reminisces about THE BEATLES and their groundbreaking use of two stereo speakers. “They’re messing with two speakers.” Riveting analysis! Now we have Atmos, VR, and Surround Sound, because apparently, M. Shadows is a sound engineer now. 🎧 He ponders the deep philosophical question of “what gets written?” when we’re not staring at two speakers anymore. Truly, a question for the ages. He suggests that art changed with THE BEATLES because of stereo, and we’ve just been living with that for 40, 50 years. But don’t worry, things are gonna change! Spotify‘s not gonna be here forever, he assures us. Because M. Shadows is also a fortune teller now. 🔮
According to M. Shadows, “Technology’s moving so fast right now that things, before they can even mature, they’re already over.” Deep. So deep. He claims that the “exponential growth that we were talking about in paradigm is just happening at an alarming rate.” Someone get this man a thesaurus! 📖 He and his bandmates just like “keeping our eyes on the edge,” because who needs peripheral vision when you’re on the edge? When something gets their bodies going, they just go do it. “And we do it and we put it out and we don’t worry about it.” Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but hey, who am I to judge? 🤷♀️ While we’re all busy digesting ‘Life Is But A Dream…’, M. Shadows‘s brain is “somewhere way far away from that record.” Probably plotting the next groundbreaking VR concert. 👽 But don’t worry, there are still people out there who are just now “getting” the album. Better late than never, I guess. 🙄
Ryan J. Downey, the interviewer extraordinaire, is apparently a journalist with credits including Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and Marvel. He’s written books, graphic novels, and liner notes for a bunch of bands you’ve probably never heard of. He’s the host of the MI Conversation Series at Hollywood’s Musicians Institute, a former MTV News reporter, and served as senior editor for Alternative Press. Basically, he’s done everything except cure cancer. 🤷♂️
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization whose mission is to defend and sustain individual rights to free speech, expression, and thought. So basically, they’re the good guys. 👍
“Life Is But A Dream…” was written and recorded over the span of four years. Because apparently, it takes that long to write an album about existential crises. It was produced by Joe Barresi and AVENGED SEVENFOLD in Los Angeles and mixed by Andy Wallace in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. The album is a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming. You know, light stuff. 💀
“Life Is But A Dream…” sold 36,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart. Not bad, but not exactly chart-topping material. AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s previous LP, the aforementioned “The Stage”, debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 album chart in November 2016. The surprise release of “The Stage” earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED SEVENFOLD album in eleven years. It sold 76,000 copies in its first week, less than half the tally of its previous two efforts. Ouch. 🤕
AVENGED SEVENFOLD made its first festival appearance in five years on May 19, 2023 at Welcome To Rockville at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The band’s setlist included three songs from “Life Is But A Dream…”: “Game Over”, “We Love You” and “Nobody”. Because nothing says “welcome back” like playing all your new, experimental stuff. 🤷♀️
AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s first concert since June 2018 took place on May 12 at AREA15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Because where else would they play? 🤔
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
