AVENGED SEVENFOLD Bassist On 'Life Is But A Dream…' Album: 'We Wanted To Accomplish Things That We Haven't Accomplished Before'

At this year's Sonic Temple festival in Columbus, Ohio, AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ spoke to Bodhi of the 99.7 The Blitz radio station about the band's upcoming album "Life Is But A Dream…", which is set to arrive on June 2 via Warner. Regarding whether the LP was easy to put together, considering it has been seven years since 2016's "The Stage" was released, Johnny said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Every album that we go into have their challenges, and those challenges come from within. We wanna challenge ourselves at our crafts and try to accomplish things that, hopefully, no one else has tried to accomplish before. And we try to do that to the best of our ability. We do that pretty every record — literally every record. So when it [came] time to do this record, it felt very much like any other time. New challenges, of course. And we wanted to accomplish things that we haven't accomplished before, as I just said — not to keep beating a dead horse there. But as far as the overall feel of it, it was very much like we got off the road from 'The Stage' cycle and we started writing. It took about a year, maybe a little longer than a year, for the writing. And just when we were ready to book the studio time to actually just start recording it, the pandemic hit and put a lot of restraints on what we could do. So we said, 'Fuck it. We're just gonna chill back and wait until we can do everything right, the way that we want to.'"

He continued: "It ended up being a silver lining, to be honest, for a lot of us, on our personal ends. We have young families, and we were able to be home with them for an extended period of time, taking the kids to school and sports and everything, which was really cool. We probably wouldn't have had a chance to do that [if it hadn't been for the pandemic]. And the other one is it gave us time to really concentrate on the record sonically after we had already finished the writing of it and maybe go back a couple of times over and really go, 'Okay. We were gonna do these interludes, and maybe we're not gonna do those anymore. Let's trim the fat on everything and make this the best possible journey of music that we can possibly put together for everybody.'"

Written and recorded over the span of four years, "Life Is But A Dream…" was produced by Joe Barresi and AVENGED SEVENFOLD in Los Angeles and mixed by Andy Wallace in the Poconos, Pennsylvania. The album is a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD made its first festival appearance in five years on May 19 at Welcome To Rockville at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. The band's setlist included three songs from < "Life Is But A Dream…": "Game Over", "We Love You" and "Nobody".

AVENGED SEVENFOLD's first concert since June 2018 took place on May 12 at AREA15 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Last month, AVENGED SEVENFOLD announced the second leg of its extensive "Life is But A Dream…" North American tour featuring support from FALLING IN REVERSE. Produced by Live Nation, leg two includes stops in Nashville, Denver, Austin, and more before concluding at Fort Worth's Dickies Arena on October 15. Fans will have the opportunity to hear the group's first single in seven years, "Nobody", and their new album "Life Is But A Dream…" for the first time live during the 30-show outing.

The first leg with support from ALEXISONFIRE includes thirteen cities across the U.S. and Canada, such as Mansfield, Québec City, Tinley Park, Calgary, and more. The group kicks off their 2023 solo touring run with two unique one-night-only arena shows in New York and Los Angeles this June.

To date, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has sold over 10 million albums worldwide and earned two consecutive No. 1 albums on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart (2010's "Nightmare" and 2013's "Hail To The King") to go along with over a billion video views and a billion-plus Spotify streams, as well as multiple No. 1 singles on rock radio. The band is equally known for their spectacular live shows, selling out arenas and headlining the world's most prestigious rock festivals.