AVENGED SEVENFOLD Will Skip GRAMMY AWARDS In Apparent Protest Of How 'Rock' Genre Is Treated

AVENGED SEVENFOLD will skip this year's Grammy Awards in apparent protest of the way the organization treats the rock and heavy metal genres.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD is nominated for a Grammy in the "Best Rock Song" category for "The Stage". It's the first-ever Grammy nod for the Southern California-based group comprised of singer M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman.

Also nominated in the "Best Rock Song" category were METALLICA's "Atlas, Rise!", K.FLAY's "Blood In The Cut", NOTHING MORE's "Go To War" and FOO FIGHTERS' "Run".

Asked by a fan on Twitter how they feel about being nominated for a Grammy, the members of AVENGED SEVENFOLD responded: "Honored. Unfortunately, they have taken 'Best Rock Song' off the telecast this year so we won't be attending. Maybe next time."

In a December 2017 interview with the WRIF station, M. Shadows was critical of the Grammy organizers who continue to include heavy metal in the 70 categories that aren't televised during the performance-heavy broadcast.

"My whole thing was that metal… if you're getting the 'metal' award, they don't actually televise it, so no one sees it — it doesn't move the needle at all. And I think that's what the Grammys have to get that right.

"When you look at metal, it's probably one of the healthiest genres when you look at it in a worldwide perspective — every single country listens to metal," he continued. "And whether it's mainstream or not, it's irrelevant. People will watch your program if you're giving awards to bands that deserve it and it's actually on TV, and it helps those bands push the needle forward."

At the time of the WRIF interview, Shadows said that AVENGED SEVENFOLD was "fortunate to be in the 'rock' category" because "Best Rock Song" was among the categories that were still included on the telecast. "And I think that's the whole point — you wanna get nominated for a Grammy and you wanna get noticed by people and seen on TV," he added. "It helps everybody when the bands can get bigger. So the 'metal' award still is a problem because literally no one's gonna see those bands or know that they're nominated, and that's an issue. I think it needs to be on TV."

The winners of the 60th Grammy Awards will be revealed on January 28 in a two-part ceremony, with the majority of the 84 awards handed out in a non-televised event that afternoon while a dozen or so are doled out on the CBS awardscast that evening.

"You've gotta think there's 15 different categories for classical, there's, like, 17 categories for jazz," M. Shadows said. "It's a crazy thing that they have to try to balance. But I think metal, out of all the genres, is just misrepresented in a big way. And I think they can put that on TV and get some mainstream exposure for bands like MASTODON and MESHUGGAH. I think it's cool."

He then jokingly added: "If I ran the Grammys, it would probably go bankrupt."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD released a deluxe edition of "The Stage" on December 22. The new version feature seven additional studio songs plus four previously unreleased live tracks recorded during recent shows at the O2 Arena in London.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD is currently on a North American headlining tour with BREAKING BENJAMIN and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE.