According to The Pulse Of Radio, a lawsuit brought against AVENGED SEVENFOLD by its former label, Warner Bros. Records, could set a new legal precedent if it actually comes to trial. Warner Bros. sued AVENGED SEVENFOLD in late 2015 after the band left the label by citing the California Labor Code's "seven-year rule." The rule allows for parties to exit contracts after seven years if certain unfavorable conditions exist. Billboard reports that nearly every, if not all, similar cases in California have been settled out of court before trial. But a provision in the rule allows labels to collect money that would have been made on undelivered albums. Warner Bros. is seeking damages based on the fact that AVENGED SEVENFOLD had one album left on its contract, while the band has argued that extensive turnover in the label's staff led to an unsatisfactory working relationship. If there is no settlement before the case goes to trial in June, Warner Bros. will have to present evidence in court of how much the label could have earned if the band's new album, "The Stage", had come out through Warner Bros. instead of the group's new label, Capitol Records. The figures could set the standard for future cases. Complicating matters is that the surprise release of "The Stage" — it arrived with just a week of advance promotion at the end of October — has backfired on the group, with the record selling considerably less in its first weeks on sale that the last three AVENGED SEVENFOLD albums. AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows told The Pulse Of Radio that the band was aware of the risks in such an unusual release. "One thing that we knew, you know, all the analytics proved that, you know, we shouldn't do this because of the way that rock fans consume music," he said. "You know, it's very physical-heavy, and one thing we knew is that we had to get records in stores, but we were gonna be basically setting ourselves up for a leak, which would have been a huge disaster. But Capitol Records did an amazing job of being able to get these records into stores, so we were able to be the first band to actually have a physical and digital release that was a surprise." AVENGED SEVENFOLD will tour Europe in early 2017 before coming back to North America in the spring.
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