M. SHADOWS Explains Why AVENGED SEVENFOLD Isn’t Interested In Performing Entire Old Albums On Tour

In a new interview with Rock Feed, M. Shadows spoke about AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s special throwback show featuring a setlist composed of songs from the band’s breakout 2003 album, “Waking The Fallen”, and its 2005 follow-up, “City Of Evil”. Headlining the October 25 concert at Santa Ana, California’s Observatory venue will be the long-running Southern California hardcore punk band DEATH BY STEREO.

The AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman, whose real name is Matt Sanders, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Yeah, we’re playing a show for about a thousand people. We’re gonna be playing only stuff from ‘Waking The Fallen’ and ‘City Of Evil’.

“We’re just not a band that wants to go take an old record on tour right now — it’s doesn’t interest us, it doesn’t excite us, but one night does,” he explained. “And it really isn’t shots fired, ’cause everyone’s doing those tours. Just for us, personally, it doesn’t wanna make us get out of bed and go do that. But one night seems really fun to us.”

Tickets to the show were made available in August exclusively for members of the Deathbats Club, a next-generation fan club and community built around AVENGED SEVENFOLD, priced at $25 each.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD and DEATH BY STEREO have a long history together, having toured together two decades ago. In addition, AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows contributed guest vocals to two songs — “Entombed We Collide” and “This Is Not The End” — on DEATH BY STEREO‘s 2005 album “Death For Life”.

This past June, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance told NME that he and his bandmates were making plans to celebrate the anniversaries of their albums “City Of Evil” and “Nightmare”, which are turning 20 and 15 in 2025, respectively. He said: “I think those albums are really monumental and fans have grown with them. They’ve meant a certain thing to people at a certain place in their life, so I think it’s important that we do something.”

Explaining that he didn’t want AVENGED SEVENFOLD to be a “nostalgia act”, Vengeance added: “I’ve always wanted to be as proud of whatever we put out today as I was when we put out those albums.” But, he said, “I’m totally cool with celebrating those albums because it was such a great place and time. Plus, it’s actually fun to relive and play those songs and get those reactions. To bank our entire career off past successes, we can’t do it, but we’ll definitely do something to celebrate those albums though. For us, the most exciting thing about looking back is recalling where our heads were at when we were young and writing them. Remembering that they’re part of who we are.”

“City Of Evil”, AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s third album, produced the singles “Bat Country” and “Beast And The Harlot”, while “Nightmare”, the band’s fifth studio LP, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in the United States. Both records have since been certified platinum by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for shipments in excess of a million copies in the U.S. alone.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD has spent much of the past year touring in support of its most recent album, 2023’s “Life Is But A Dream…”