Avenged Sevenfold plan a break

August 27th, 2011

Michelle

First of all, fans of Avenged Sevenfold shouldn’t panic. The band is not breaking up, but simply taking a breather after touring in support of their latest album, Nightmare. And though the length of the break and what each member will do with their time off is “up in the air,” singer M Shadows states that a break is the best way to avoid burn out.

M Shadows had this to say about the band’s habit of taking long breaks between records:

We’ve always taken a long time (between albums), and everyone’s told us we’re stupid for doing that.
But I think bands burn themselves out. Look what happened to Disturbed; those are good friends of ours, and you just get caught up in the do a record, tour for two years, do a record, tour for two years…We’re very cautious of making sure that everybody has their time. We need to go home…and make sure everybody’s mentally in the right spot to do a new record.
We all hang out with each other. Me and (guitarist Synyster) Gates are married to twin sisters and they’re best friends, so it’s a total family thing we have going on. And I have a studio in my house. So does (Gates). So we’ll hang out and lay some stuff down and joke around with it, and eventually it turns into something for the band — which is a much healthier way to do it instead of putting a lot of stress on ourselves to meet a deadline or something.

Shadows insists that new drummer Arin Ilejay is “their guy,” and that the band wants to record a record with him. Taking a break is the best way to ensure Ilejay is comfortable recording and writing with the band and that he has creative input.