AVENGED SEVENFOLD Singer's Illness Forces Milan Concert Cancelation

Tonight's (Tuesday, February 21) AVENGED SEVENFOLD / DISTURBED concert at Mediolanum Forum in Milan, Italy has been canceled because AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows is reportedly suffering from laryngitis.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD played an abbreviated show last night (Monday, February 20) in Stuttgart, Germany so that M. Shadows could prevent further damage to his voice.

In a 2016 interview with Louisville's rock station 95.7 QMF, M. Shadows spoke about the surgery on his vocal cords that he underwent prior to the recording of AVENGED SEVENFOLD's 2005 album "City Of Evil". He said: "Yeah, I had throat surgery in 2002, I think. It took a couple of years [to get all the lost notes from my voice], but I went from just being a kid that dropped out of high school to go on Warped Tour and had no training at all. And then when you come off a surgery, you have a lot of doctor's orders, which is don't talk for a couple of months and then go see this vocal coach. And so once I saw the vocal coach, I realized all the things I was doing wrong. But, you know, about six years stuff after that, I was able to get all my old stuff back, but with a little bit of technique so it doesn't hurt when you sing; it's not supposed to hurt when you sing. So I learned a lot from him and I still use him to this day."

Shadows turned to Ron Anderson, a vocal coach that had previously worked with Axl Rose and Chris Cornell. Shadows was specifically looking to add a more gritty, raspy tone to his voice and worked with Anderson for several months on this before "City Of Evil" was recorded.

Anderson told Kerrang! magazine in a 2015 interview: "[M. Shadows] had a cyst, and when they removed the cyst, he had lost five notes from his voice. I helped him get those notes back, and we also worked on his technique. He started studying with me every day for five or six months, and the tone started changing as everything was coming back. He had a style in mind that he wanted to achieve for 'City Of Evil']. I helped him towards it, but he knew what he wanted, so I simply showed him how to do it. He was incredibly determined, and I'd say he's one of the best singers in the world right now."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD will join METALLICA for the latter's "WorldWired" 2017 North American tour. Produced by Live Nation, the summer's hottest ticket kicks off May 10 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland with openers VOLBEAT.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD is touring in support of its seventh album, "The Stage", which was given a surprise release at the end of October with almost no promotion beforehand.