Avenged Sevenfold Stream Live Set, Drop New Album

This event was live streaming from the top of the Capitol Records in L.A. through Universal Music Group’s VRTGO VR platform, and you can view the band’s performance via the Facebook stream below:

If you have the means and wanna suss it out in full 360-degree VR then go grab the VRTGO app here or through the band themselves here. The fans that were in attendance in L.A. on the streets and around the nearby rooftops may have also noticed augmented reality moments of added visuals and effects throughout the set, which all of us "normal viewers" can see clearly in the above set. Of course, for those wanting to keep up with the band following this set and this massive announcement and who just can't be arsed with VR (and with good reason), you can also follow their Snapchat account for updates and general shenanigans at 'thea7xofficial'.

Working with Capitol Records, the band’s stealth release was months in the making, and it actually kicked off a few weeks ago with a guerilla campaign that saw projections of their iconic "deathbat" symbol appearing on various landmarks around the world, with it appearing right near Syndey Harbour Bridge recently for us Aussies.

Furthermore, in a world first, of sorts, A7X are now the first rock band to ever do a surprise release announcement in this format. I'm not the biggest fan of the band but goddamnit, I cannot deny that this method was very cool, indeed! And if we're gonna talk about being "cool", then how's this: the album’s 15-minute-plus final track, 'Exist', features a guest appearance by award-winning astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, giving a spoken word performance that he penned specifically for this album. Wow.

You can check out Avenged Sevenfold’s recent 8-minute epic single 'The Stage'  just below, with the album of the same name available now, and you can stream it in full via Spotify right now.