AVENGED SEVENFOLD Guitarist On 'The Stage': 'We Wanted To Really Show Off Our Instrumentation And Time Signatures'

Anthony Morgan of Metal Forces recently conducted an interview with AVENGED SEVENFOLD rhythm guitarist Zacky Vengeance. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On parting ways with drummer Arin Ilejay and recruiting former BAD RELIGION drummer Brooks Wackerman:

Zacky: "One of things that always set us apart was having a drummer like The Rev [James Sullivan] with us. After he passed away, we knew that it was gonna be really hard to fill that void. We brought in a young kid named Arin to tour with us, and he played on the 'Hail To The King' [August 2013] album. He's a brilliant drummer, but doesn't have the same… I guess, way of writing that The Rev had. We were just really missing that element of our songwriting, and Brooks was always a drummer who we were fond of for his unique style, coming from the punk rock scene and a famous family of drummers. We asked him if he would be interested, and he was interested. We jammed together, and it was definitely a perfect fit for us musically."

On the musical style of latest album "The Stage":

Zacky: "I feel like we have a lot of albums that are very diverse, but I feel with this album we're literally taking all of the styles of metal and hard rock and doing our own spin on it, which hasn't really been done. Incorporating drum beats that haven't really been used to fill up verses, and doing time signatures that a lot of rock bands stay away from. That gives it more of an almost progressive feel, but it still maintains a lot of listenability which is hard to achieve, because there's so many metal bands just doing the same thing — one or two beats fast, double-bass, screaming on top of it or singing on top of it — and there are bands that do it so well. For us, it was trying to really step out and kind of create our own place within the rock and metal world, and not try to do anything that's already been done."

On consciously writing music:

Zacky: "It's always been a conscious thing for us to do whatever will separate us from the pack, and make us happy musically. We really wanted to try and come up with something very creative at a time when a lot of bands rehash riffs over and over again, though. With 'Hail To The King' — our last album — we obviously wore our influences on our sleeve, and it was a blatant attempt to turn on our younger generation of fans to more classic-sounding metal. With that, it kind of got their attention. It was almost like the gateway drug to heavier, more melodic music, so we had a plan and it seemed to work. With this album, we wanted to really show off our instrumentation and time signatures, and long, adventurous songs. Once you can get a fan to listen to an album a handful of times and really have a lot of substance for them to grasp, then you're looking at having a fan that really appreciates what you do for life, and can appreciate coming to see it live. That's what bands like PINK FLOYD and bands like RUSH and even the METALLICAs of this world have, which is long, ambitious songs that pull in all different directions."

Read the entire interview at Metal Forces.