Soon at Nova Rock

Avenged Sevenfold: Hard sounds have a future

Angels in devil's clothing: Avenged Sevenfold have been at the top of the international heavy metal market for years.

(Bild: Brian Catelle)

In just a few days, the Burgenland steppe near Nickelsdorf will once again be transformed into an epicenter for rock fans - on the second day of this year's Nova Rock, the US band Avenged Sevenfold will return to Austria. A band that proves that you can headline big festivals even when you're not Methuselah age.

In addition to the eternal discussions about an insufficient quota of women at rock and metal festivals, the question of over-ageing in the scene is the most frequent basis for discussions. In times when even bands like Green Day have been around for more than three decades, this is not an unjustified topic. The Americans from Avenged Sevenfold have been proving for some time that you can fill halls with hard music outside of the global trend genres of hip-hop, Latin, pop and EDM, but also as a comparatively younger act. This year, the collective around charismatic and vocally versatile frontman M. Shadows is even celebrating two anniversaries. On the one hand, the 25th anniversary of the band, and on the other hand, ex-Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman has been sitting purposefully behind the drums for exactly ten years. So it's easy to forget that the album "Life Is But A Dream ...", released in spring 2023 after a seven-year break, overshot the mark with its exuberant experimentation and turned out rather mediocre.

Initially in front of the kids
In a few days, the quintet, who were acclaimed almost every year before Corona, will finally make their Austrian comeback and headline the second day of the Nova Rock Festival on June 14. The Californians already shone there in 2006, 2014 and 2018 - so you can look forward to an exciting and intense rendezvous with the collective. Bassist Johnny Christ, the calming influence in the band, remembers the early days very well. "At the very beginning, we played in front of ten or 15 kids in a bar and hung out with them afterwards," he recalls in the Krone interview, "then came the first clubs, big halls and finally arenas. Our entire career has been an evolution in terms of size and ability. Fortunately, we have a loyal fanbase that follows our path and that we can always rely on."

On their debut album "Sounding The Seventh Trumpet", released in 2001, A7X, as they are abbreviated by their fans, played pure metalcore, which was immensely popular at the time. However, this subgenre became too little for the band for many reasons. Guitarist Synyster Gates, who had been endowed with extraordinary skills since the early days, felt too constricted by the narrow sound corset and frontman M. Shadows quickly realized that his vocal volume was capable of far more than it initially seemed. Influences from hard rock, alternative rock, pure heavy metal and sometimes even pop found their way into Avenged Sevenfold's world of sound - which saw them reach number one in the charts in the key markets of the USA and the UK and, as an unusually young band, become the festival headliners they still are today.

Coming from nowhere
In the meantime, the band has proven itself alongside greats such as Ozzy Osbourne and Guns N' Roses and, with its pyrotechnics-laden shows, has long been one of the most exciting live bands of the harder kind. "But we really worked our asses off to get here," Christ emphasizes, "we didn't have any help or acquaintances in the industry at the beginning. We came from nothing and grew organically. We were in Europe for the first time in 2003 and even if it wasn't so easy in the small clubs at the beginning - we just kept coming back. Headlining a festival like Nova Rock in front of so many people is an incredible feeling, but we weren't born with this status. We're incredibly proud to be able to play concerts like this because all of us in the band know exactly how hard we work for it and the hardships we've had to endure."

One of the biggest advantages of being a metal band is that you don't have to bow to current market trends so quickly. Composing songs that kick in within 30 seconds and excite the average Spotify listener is out of the question for A7X. "You're walking a fine line if you don't want to lose touch on the one hand, but also want to retain your identity on the other," says Christ, "but at the end of the day, as a songwriter and musician, you should be confident enough not to let any mechanisms dictate your path." The bassist openly questions the widespread view that rock and metal bands don't have as much influence as they used to. "In reality, many rock bands are bigger than ever before, but the conversations and discussions about them are spread across so many information channels that you have a different, less focused perspective on them. Social media platforms dictate what you see and what you don't. These are often distorted perceptions."

The current is right
In any case, Avenged Sevenfold's success story is far from over and we can expect another stylistic turnaround on the next studio album, which has yet to be announced. After a quarter of a century at the top of the genre, with numerous awards, chart successes and high sales figures, the band in their mid-forties are not interested in preserving their own legacy, but still in composing exciting music and reinventing themselves. "I'd be lying if I said we were always of the same opinion when it comes to songwriting, but in the end it's always been a case of the individual ideas merging with each other and coming up with something sensible in the end. As long as we're going in roughly the same direction, I'm sure the result will be fine."

Live at Nova Rock
On June 14, Avenged Sevenfold will be headlining the second Nova Rock day at Pannonia Fields in Burgenland. They will be preceded by Machine Head, Parkway Drive and the local all-star collective AUT Of ORDA. You can find all further information and available tickets for the country's biggest rock festival at www.novarock.at.