They’re playing huge venues
After making the big step up into arenas and packing one of the best metal shows this generation has seen on the Hail To The King tour, Avenged are going up another level this time around, taking on some of the UK’s biggest venues. The crown jewel in the trek will feature the Cali crew landing at London’s biggest indoor venue, the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena. A 21st century metal band headlining the O2?! Who says the genre is dead?
The shows will be epic
The Hail To The King era saw Avenged Sevenfold bringing more flames, more fireworks and more badass props than ever before, with the grim, skeletal King himself being brought to life from the album artwork and placed onstage in one of the most impressive spectacles we’ve seen. With the band officially tackling bigger venues this time around, we can only imagine the level of theatricality we’ll be seeing from the five-piece. Our request: giant, 3D deathbat drones please. All over the place. And more fire. We fucking love fire, us.
Disturbed are coming along too!
Yep, this is officially a Superbill; David Draiman’s nu metal survivors will be joining Avenged for their first full run of UK dates since last year’s well-received Immortalized album. They like to put on a bit of a show themselves, of course, and there’s the added bonus of everyone getting to lose their shit to Beast And The Harlot and Down With The Sickness in the same night. Can it just be January now, please?
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Oh, and In Flames…
How do you improve on a touring bill already packing two certified heavy metal giants? Add one of the greatest and most influential metal bands of all time, obviously. Rumour has it In Flames are beavering away on a new album as we speak, so by the time they hit the UK, we should have new music to get excited about. If the Gothenburg legends are on form, we should be in for something very, very special indeed.
New Avenged music!
You know what a new Avenged tour means, right? A new Avenged album! As Hammer went to press there was no official word out on any new music, but we wouldn’t be too surprised to see some fresh material rear its head sooner rather than later. And when that album comes, just what the hell is it gonna sound like?! After the bold left-turn into traditional, heavy metal sounds on Hail To The King, it’s impossible to second-guess what Avenged will turn to next. Will they still embrace the stadium-sized riffs? Will we see them return to more metalcore-oriented waters? Folk metal? Battle-rap? New drummer Brooks Wackerman’s background in punk may hold some influence, and he told us way back in December that the new record would be “completely different to the previous one” and that the band are “taking risks”. We have no idea what to expect, but we can’t wait.
We get to see Brooks do his thing
And speaking of the new boy, this will be our first chance to get a look at Wackerman behind the kit for Avenged. Despite his excellent pedigree, boasting previous stints with the likes of Bad Religion, Suicidal Tendencies, The Vandals and Avril Lavigne, this will be his first trek with a metal band on this level, and live. Many eyes will doubtless be on the man who replaced Arin Ilejay after the youngster’s surprising ejection last year, and it may make for an interesting dynamic. Still, the man knows his shit, so it’ll be fascinating to see what his presence and experience brings to this next chapter of Avenged’s career.
They could be back for festival season
Having dates so early in the year leaves a lot of time for Avenged to make it back here before the end of their next album cycle. You see where we’re going, right? After making their Download headline debut in 2014, could we see a repeat appearance from the guys come next June? Or perhaps they’ll look to other options. We’ll just have to wait and see…
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