Within the age of streaming algorithms and generative AI, artists are more and more confronted with the problem of staying true to their inventive instincts whereas navigating public expectations. For Avenged Sevenfold, that stress is entrance and heart of their most up-to-date and polarizing launch, Life Is However A Dream…
The album, which took 4 years to craft, represents a deep dive into the human situation. Produced by Joe Barresi alongside the band and blended by Andy Wallace within the Poconos, Life Is However A Dream… is something however typical. It is an existential odyssey, exploring themes of mortality, objective, and the worth of existence—topics far faraway from the safer floor many rock bands tread.
In a brand new interview with Rock Feed, frontman M. Shadows defined that the band by no means approached this document with fan approval in thoughts. As a substitute, they embraced a riskier, extra introspective path.
“Dave Farrell from Linkin Park — we had been at dinner in all probability a yr in the past and we had been speaking about Life Is However A Dream…, and he stated… We had been on this very nice restaurant, and there was a bunch of individuals round. And he says, ‘If you happen to had been to take your document proper now, or any document that you just love, and present it to everyone right here, how a lot weight would you place behind any of those individuals’s opinions?’ And the answer is zero,” M. Shadows stated (by way of Blabbermouth)
That anecdote set the tone for Shadows’ broader philosophy on suggestions—one which favors boldness over consensus.
“And so, on the finish of the day, we’re not making artwork by committee,” he defined. “This is not artwork by committee. It is not, like, everyone give us your concepts and we’re all gonna form of morph the identical factor. Now we have A.I. to try this now; you are gonna have the ability to take your favourite data, and A.I. can spit out one thing form of prefer it. However you want artists and creatives to maintain pushing the boundaries. Some issues are gonna work, some issues aren’t. However on the finish of the day, even when one thing does not work, it’d spark in another person, ‘Oh, that was daring. The place can I push limits a little bit extra?’ And I believe that is how this complete house thrives.”
In a panorama the place instantaneous reactions and sizzling takes usually dominate, M. Shadows has made peace with letting all of it go — good and unhealthy.
“So for me, I could not care much less about different individuals’s opinions, however one rule I made myself a very long time in the past is I take heed to the positivity equally to the negativity, that means I do not care about both. If a evaluate is a ten out of 10, cool. It may very well be purchased and paid for. Cool. It does not matter. If it is a zero out of 10, it additionally does not matter. So I believe that you may’t simply stroll round with all of your great things after which ignore the unhealthy. You need to form of ignore them each, in my view.”
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