AVENGED SEVENFOLD has announced a treat for its U.K. fans. From Friday, January 20 until Monday, January 23, the band will be setting up a pop-up shop — Vlauder Lauders General Store — in London's Camden to coincide with their two live dates at the 02 Arena. The shop will be based at Camden Market, 215-216 Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1 8AB, and open from 10 a.m until 6 p.m. The store will be hosting in-store raffles and giveaways of exclusive and signed merchandise every hour on the hour, so fans are advised to check in frequently. Every purchase made at the store also comes with an entry (enter to win) to win surprise gifts. In addition, world-renowned painter, sculptor and designer from Huntington Beach Cam Rackam, who collaborated with the band on the album artwork for "Hail To The King" and "Nightmare" will also be in-store creating art pieces in front of a live audience. AVENGED SEVENFOLD kicked off a 10-date U.K. tour on January 7 in Dublin, which is already picking up fantastic reviews, prompting The Guardian to comment that "the five-piece methodically discharge booming, arena-filling songs that are as hefty as they are heavy" in their four-star review. The band's last visit was in 2013 for a sold-out arena tour plus an awe-inspiring headline slot at Download festival in June 2014, which cemented their unshakable reputation for breath-taking live performances. AVENGED SEVENFOLD's latest album, "The Stage", debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 album chart in November. Co-produced by the band and Barresi, the disc features eleven panoramic tracks tied together by an Artificial Intelligence theme. Inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Elon Musk, the album is the band's first thematic release. While the term "AI" conjures up images of robots and fantasy films, the band steers clear of a science fiction storyline. Instead, the album sees them taking a futurist's look at the accelerated rate at which technology's intelligence is expanding and what that means — good and bad — for the future. AVENGED SEVENFOLD made the album available at midnight on October 27 with almost no promotion beforehand, save for the arrival of a new song one week earlier. The quintet unveiled the disc with a live-streamed performance from the rooftop of Capitol Records in Hollywood, California.
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