Avenged Sevenfold switched record labels because they wanted to protect their artistry, Zacky Vengeance says.
The band are locked in a legal dispute with Warner Brothers over a contract breach. Last month, they sneak released their new album The Stage via their new label Capitol Records.
The guitarist says they jumped ship because they wanted more room for creativity on the follow-up to 2013’s Hail To The King – and didn’t want to be “weighed down” by the business side of music.
Vengeance tells Full Metal Jackie: “To be honest, we never, ever let business weigh down the creativity of this band. In fact, the reason we have switched labels is because we put our artistry first and we wanted to be somewhere that cared about our vision.
“When we hear our fans say that we helped save their life, or somebody who’s terminally ill comes to us and wants to meet us as one of their last wishes, it means a lot more to us than us being a profit-and-loss statement. So we had to find a home that agreed and wanted to be a part of it.”
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He adds: “As you can see, with all the things that we’ve been up to and doing and the songs on the album, an eight-and-a-half-minute single, a 15-minute song – Capitol Records just truly respect the artistry. That’s where our heads have been. We’ve never, ever let the business stuff weigh us down.”
Frontman M Shadows recently claimed an Avenged Sevenfold Best Of compilation album, which Warner Brothers announced for release next month, was an attempt by the label to “undercut our sales and confuse casual fans.”
Avenged Sevenfold released a video for the album’s title track The Stage last month.
Avenged Sevenfold tour dates 2017
Jan 10: Glasgow SSE Hydro
Jan 12: Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
Jan 13: Birmingham Genting Arena
Jan 15: Sheffield Arena
Jan 16: Manchester Arena
Jan 18: Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
Jan 19: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Jan 21: London O2 Arena
Jan 22: London O2 Arena
Feb 12: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany
Feb 13: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany
Feb 15: Berlin Arena, Germany
Feb 16: Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Halle, Germany
Feb 18: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Feb 20: Stuttgart Schleyerhalle, Germany
Feb 21: Milan Forum, Italy
Feb 23: Vienna Wiener Stadthalle, Austria
Feb 25: Munich Zenith, Germany
Feb 26: Zurich Halle 622, Austria
Feb 28: Lille Zenith Arena, France
Mar 01: Luxembourg Rockhal, Luxembourg
Mar 02: Paris AccorHotels Arena, France
Mar 04: Copenhagen Valby Hallen, Denmark
Mar 07: Helsinki Hartwall Arena, Finland
Mar 09: Stockholm Ericsson Globe, Sweden
Mar 10: Oslo Telenor, Norway
How Avenged Sevenfold pulled off one of the biggest shocks of 2016
