Avenged Sevenfold plan on revisiting past on upcoming tour

M Shadows
M Shadows (Image credit: Rock: Front\/Center - Concert Photography)

Avenged Sevenfold are revamping their shows for the upcoming tour – with a “big” production and a setlist packed with older material and songs they’ve never played before.

Vocalist M Shadows says they’re experimenting with a new stage concept as the novelty wears off their last album, 2013’s Hail To The King.

He tells WGRD: “On this tour we’re thinking about going with a really clean, really big look. And since Hail To The King is three years old, it really isn’t appropriate to bring out Hail To The King-themed stuff.

“So I think what we’re gonna start doing is we’ve been, in rehearsal, bringing out a lot of older things that people haven’t necessarily heard in a long time, or things we’ve never played. Like, we debuted a song called Planets the other night, and we’ve been playing a song called Acid Rain.

“We want to start bringing out some older stuff that people haven’t necessarily heard. So we wanna pack this setlist with stuff that isn’t necessarily all the hits and just kind of come up with a big look, production-wise, while we work on building something much bigger for the future and for the next few runs.”

Shadows also says work is continuing on what will be the band’s seventh album.

He adds: “We’re very wishy-washy. We’re writing, we’ve been throwing stuff around. We’ve been working, and that’s all I can really say about it.

“I think there’s a lot of speculation online, and we’re just kind of leaving it that way. But when there’s something to be heard, we’ll let the world know. But right now, we’re just still working on stuff.”

Avenged Sevenfold kick off their North American tour with Volbeat, Killswitch Engage and Avatar in September, before hitting the UK and Europe next year.

Avenged Sevenfold tour dates 2016⁄2017

Sep 12: Bonner Springs Providence Medical Center Amphitheater, KS
Sep 14: Grand Rapids Van Andel Arena, MI
Sep 15: Toledo Huntington Center, OH
Sep 17: Mashantucket Foxwoods Resort Casino, CT
Sep 18: Chester Talen Energy Stadium, PA
Sep 20: Fort Wayne Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, IN
Sep 21: Nashville Bridgestone Arena, TN
Sep 24: Fort Worth Texas Motor Speedway, TX
Sep 25: Houston NRG Park, TX
Oct 01: Louisville Champions Park, KY
Oct 02: Janesville Southern Wisconsin Regional AIrport, WI
Oct 23: Sacramaneto Discovery Park, CA
Jan 10: Glasgow SSE Hydro
Jan 12: Newcastle Metro Radio Arena
Jan 13: Birmingham Genting Arena
Jan 15: Sheffield Arena
Jan 16: Manchester Arena
Jan 18: Nottingham Motorpoint Arena
Jan 19: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Jan 21: London O2 Arena
Feb 12: Frankfurt Festhalle, Germany
Feb 13: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany
Feb 15: Berlin Arena, Germany
Feb 16: Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Halle, Germany
Feb 18: Amsterdam Ziggo Dome, Netherlands
Feb 20: Stuttgart Schleyerhalle, Germany
Feb 21: Milan Forum, Italy
Feb 23: Vienna Wiener Stadthalle, Austria
Feb 25: Munich Zenith, Germany
Feb 26: Zurich Halle 622, Austria
Feb 28: Lille Zenith Arena, France
Mar 01: Luxembourg Rockhal, Luxembourg
Mar 02: Paris AccorHotels Arena, France
Mar 04: Copenhagen Valby Hallen, Denmark
Mar 07: Helsinki Hartwall Arena, Finland
Mar 09: Stockholm Ericsson Globe, Sweden
Mar 10: Oslo Telenor, Norway

Thinking Out Loud: M Shadows

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.