Seven years is a long time to keep fans guessing. But when Avenged Sevenfold dropped Life Is But a Dream in 2023, the wait turned out to be worth it — at least for many listeners. Following 2016’s ambitious The Stage, the band’s latest release swerved hard into experimentation, leaving some longtime fans puzzled but critics nearly unanimous in their praise.
Still, for frontman M. Shadows, the reception — good or bad — doesn’t drive the band’s creative choices.
“We were at dinner probably a year ago, and we were talking about Life Is But a Dream… We were in this really nice restaurant, and there were a bunch of people around. And he says, ‘If you were to take your record right now, or any record that you love, and show it to everybody here, how much weight would you put behind any of these people’s opinions?’ And the answer’s zero,” he clarified (via Ultimate Guitar)
That story, shared in a recent interview with Rock Feed, features Linkin Park‘s Dave Farrell helping put things in perspective. According to Shadows, their art is not up for a vote.
“And so, at the end of the day, we’re not making art by committee. This isn’t art by committee. It’s not, like, everybody give us your ideas and we’re all gonna kind of morph the same thing. We have A.I. to do that now; you’re gonna be able to take your favorite records, and A.I. can spit out something sort of like it.
“But you need artists and creatives to keep pushing the boundaries. Some things are gonna work, some things aren’t. But at the end of the day, even if something doesn’t work, it might spark in someone else, ‘Oh, that was bold. Where can I push limits a little more?’ And I think that’s how this whole space thrives.”
The message is clear: whether Life Is But a Dream connects with the masses or not, it serves a purpose — to push boundaries and maybe inspire someone else to take a creative risk.
Shadows goes even further by dismissing both the praise and the backlash: “For me, I couldn’t care less about other people’s opinions, but one rule I made myself a long time ago is I listen to the positivity equally to the negativity, meaning I don’t care about either. If a review is a 10 out of 10, cool. It could be bought and paid for. Cool. It doesn’t matter. If it’s a zero out of 10, it also doesn’t matter. So I think that you can’t just walk around with all your good stuff and then ignore the bad. You have to kind of ignore them both, in my opinion.”
In a time when reactions on the web can re-orient a band in a night, Avenged Sevenfold is doubling down on something that these days is extremely rare: writing music for themselves. Whether that means baffling some with it or earning inadvertent acclaim, Shadows and crew seem more than comfortable with the middle ground.
2 Comments
Loved it.
It’s so funny how you twist someone’s words to get people to read your article. What you can’t get people to read your articles otherwise?! Clearly if you watch that interview with M. Shadows that was not what he was saying! Sad you people can’t get readers without twisting someone’s words. And Life is but a Dream is a fucking awesome album! I think it’s great that they aren’t trying to conform to what everybody thinks they should be! That’s what I love about them! Avenged Sevenfold is by far the best band ever! M. Shadows is fucking amazing! Whenever things aren’t going right in life I throw on Avenged and I am instantly in a better place! Keep doing what your doing Avenged Sevenfold! You’re amazing!