Debbie Sexxton of the 97.1 The Eagle Rocks radio station recently conducted an interview with AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Synyster Gates. You can now listen to the chat below. Speaking about AVENGED SEVENFOLD's new album, "The Stage", Gates said: "[It's got] a ton of energy. One thing I'm proud of is that I don't feel I've ever heard these approaches musically. Lyrically, yeah, it's absolutely incredible. Structurally, harmonically, the riffs were inspired by such a unique place. And the addition of Brooks Wackerman [on drums], we were jamming a lot, and he's just such a free mind, and the things he'd come up with. I mean, we'd go back and forth on riffs, and just the possibilities were endless. So I feel like it's very, very unique and so chaotic, but it's got that controlled chaos and still the melodies and the vibe of the song is imperative and at the forefront. But underneath is this tumultuous madness that I think supports it well. So I'm really proud of it. I think it's a super-unique record." Asked how Brooks Wackerman is working out as AVENGED SEVENFOLD's new drummer, Synyster said: "He's incredible. He's one of the coolest dudes ever. Just such a polished musician. Professional, [with a] huge heart. He's fucking funny as fuck. We needed a different approach — not just inspired by different stuff, but we needed to jam a little bit more. We needed different ideas. And he really did help to inspire so much creativity in this writing process that he gave us really refreshing energy every single day." "The Stage" came out a little over two months ago. The group 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 surprise release of the disc, which was announced the night it went on sale, earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED SEVENFOLD album in eleven years — less than half the tally of its previous two efforts. The marketing plan and launch of the album, the band's first for Capitol Records, was months in the making, starting with the projection of the band's logo, the Deathbat, on buildings in cities around the world. The campaign even included some misdirection, as the group had its friend Chris Jericho "accidentally" leak a fake album title and release date.
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