Are Avenged Sevenfold about to release their album without telling anyone?

Avenged Sevenfold deathbat

Are Avenged Sevenfold releasing their comeback single this week? If unconfirmed internet reports are to be believed, the Orange County band are about to unleash their first new material since 2013’s Hail To The King.

Blabbermouth reports that the single will be called The Stage, and that it will drop without any prior fanfare on Friday 14 October. Naturally, Avenged Sevenfold themselves are keeping schtum, but the appearance of their Deathbat logo on the sides of buildings in London, Paris and Toronto earlier in October kickstarted the rumour mill.

As if one leak wasn’t enough, Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho apparently let slip details of the new AX7 album. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Jericho indicated the new album is titled Voltaic Oceans and would be released on December 9.

While the band or their label haven’t confirmed the release of the single or the album, Jericho is close to the band and has recently acted as a kind of unofficial spokesman – he was the first to draw attention to the Deathbat logos on the side of buildings.

If Avenged are planning to do a Beyoncé and surprise-release the single and album, it will be the first time a major-league metal band has gone down that route, and it could potentially open the floodgates for more to follow. Can we expect the new Tool album to emerge unannounced this side of Christmas? Stranger things have happened.

7 Things We Want From The New Avenged Sevenfold Album

The A-Z Of Avenged Sevenfold

Avenged Sevenfold Quiz: how well do you know the band?

Dave Everley

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

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