AVENGED SEVENFOLD's ZACKY VENGEANCE: 'We Learned A Ton' From Touring With METALLICA

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, AVENGED SEVENFOLD guitarist Zacky Vengeance offered an update on the band's current activities, four months before the launch of AVENGED SEVENFOLD's North American tour with GOOD CHARLOTTE. Zacky said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're just getting ready to start putting together some setlists and some announcements that I can't really talk about, but we definitely have some things in the works in regards to getting this tour up and running, making it exciting, doing stuff that is kind of, in typical AVENGED fashion, stuff that people don't expect. And then putting together setlists and making some more touring announcements and basically putting in a lot of work to make sure that we open up some new songs, play some stuff people haven't heard, maybe have never heard, maybe haven't heard in a while, just really listening to our fans also. We don't wanna be one of those bands that just goes up there and just plays the hits; we wanna go and make every concert an experience. And I think there's some rock bands that do a really good job of that. And we're just really working on making it the best experience. There's no phoning it in. It's not just a cut-and-paste repeat of the last tour. It's gotta be special. So when you see this particular show, it's gonna be one that says — hopefully 10, 20 years down the line, like, 'Hey, did you see that tour? Because if you didn't see that tour, you will not see that tour again.' And that's kind of something that we've always wanted to sort of bring to the table. So we're just working on that. We're just not gonna bring the same show twice."

Asked if he and his AVENGED SEVENFOLD bandmates have been in the studio working on any new material, Zacky said: "We're always writing and always trying to come up with the next idea that's gonna completely, completely just divide the entire fanbase and send Reddit and the comment sections of Instagram on fire. So we're well on our way to doing that. And I would say we are absolutely on that program right now."

Zacky also once again discussed the experimental nature of the band's latest album, "Life Is But A Dream…", which arrived in June 2023 via Warner. Reflecting on the mixed response to the LP, which has included a fair proportion of negative reactions, he said: "Well, that's the thing about music and the bands that we love. And what people don't understand is what they're not prepared for can be shocking. But later down the road, you realize, 'Oh, that's just what that band did.' And it takes years sometimes for people to come around to certain things. And the reason that we know it is because we've been fortunate to have this long of a career and people are, like, 'Well, 'City Of Evil''s the best album.' People are, like, 'No, the self-titled is the best album.' Or ''The Stage' is the best album.' And I'm just sitting there scratching my head and, like, well, when 'City Of Evil' came out, everyone hated it too. They're, like, 'What are you guys doing? These songs are too long. You can't mix metal and punk rock and GUNS N' ROSES style of rock and roll. And you guys have solos and dueling guitars like IRON MAIDEN. What are you guys doing?' At the time, with every album, people are so divided, and it's always been that way. And then later down the road, it's like, 'That's my favorite album.' 'That's my favorite album.' So you kind of just write what you write and you leave it up to people to love it, hate it, catch up to it later down the road. But you always do it from the heart. You give it the best best effort that you can possibly put into it. You record it exactly how you want it to be heard. You make the lyrics exactly what you want 'em to be. There's no phoning it in. We throw away 98% of everything that we write and purposely save exactly what we want to release. And for us, whether people like us or hate us, it's always what we believe quality over quantity. Because there's bands that just write songs and they have a good formula and then they just keep writing songs that sound like the same song in hopes that another one will hit and hit. And before you know it, they have a bunch of songs that are very much their sound but they never step outside the box. And for a person like me, that's when I get bored and look for the next artist that's trying to do something creative or keep me on my toes. Those are the ones that I go back to listening to for my whole life."

Zacky also reflected on his band's experience of sharing the stage with METALLICA on an entire U.S. tour nine years ago. He said: "We learned a ton, and it was because we're such big fans. And we learned how they treat their fans, which is how a band should treat their fans. They really care about their fans. And they put everything into their shows. They give it their best performance. They put a lot of work into it. They change setlists. They do exciting things."

Zacky continued: "Honestly, and this is gonna be controversial, but we were touring in a van. And we were driving across the country playing small shows, and it was right at the time when [2003's] 'St. Anger' came out, and that was the most divisive METALLICA album since 'Load' and since 'Reload' and since the 'Black Album'. And you look back and people were, like, 'What are they doing with the 'Black Album'?' 'What are they doing with 'Load'?' 'Where are these guys at?' And then with 'St. Anger', it was, like, 'What are they doing?' It was the craziest-sounding [album]. And then we fell in love with it. It might not be our favorite METALLICA album, but the thought behind it and the fact that it was so different and it had to be listened to, and they were just going for this thrashy raw sound using tones that weren't perfect, studio, modern-day drum samples, which they're fully able to accomplish, if they want — they can do whatever they want — they chose to go and just make this buck-wild album. And it was, like, 'If METALLICA can do that, then we can do that.' … It's still taking me a little bit longer to get into 'Lulu' [METALLICA's controversial 2011 collaborative disc with Lou Reed], but I love Lou Reed, so knowing that those guys are inspired by off-the-wall artists kind of caught me for a loop because they are such the epitome of a metal band. And then it's, like, 'Whoa. They stepped that far out of the box.' It's, like, 'Oh, these guys just love music. These guys are just fans of music.' And that's probably why they're so good at what they do, which is kind of cool."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD and GOOD CHARLOTTE will join together this summer for a North American tour. Promoted by Live Nation, the 16-city trek will kick off July 25 in Ridgedale, Missouri, with additional stops in Shakopee, Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Boston, Charlotte, Dallas, and more before wrapping August 27 at Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre in Phoenix, Arizona.

Last September, AVENGED SEVENFOLD postponed its fall 2025 Latin American tour due to M. Shadows's vocal injury. The band was scheduled to to kick off the tour on September 25, 2025 in Buenos Aires, Argentina but ended up calling off the trek after M. Shadows was diagnosed with vocal fold hematoma, a condition where a blood vessel in the vocal cord ruptures and leaks blood under the lining of the vocal cord.

"Life Is But A Dream…" reportedly sold 36,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart. AVENGED SEVENFOLD's previous LP, "The Stage", debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 album chart in November 2016. The surprise release of "The Stage" earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED SEVENFOLD album in eleven years. It sold 76,000 copies in its first week, less than half the tally of its previous two efforts.

Last December AVENGED SEVENFOLD released a new song, "Magic". AVENGED SEVENFOLD debuted the song in a season of "Call Of Duty" Black Ops 7, and released the track fully independently, continuing the ambition of the band's current work. The band once again partnered with the world-renowned fine artist Wes Lang for the single artwork. "Magic" was the first new AVENGED SEVENFOLD release since "Life Is But A Dream…"

Zacky will release a solo album, "Dark Horse", under his real name, Zachary Baker, on April 3 via his label Vngnz Records.