Avenged Sevenfold Announce New Album 'Life Is But A Dream' & Release Weird Single 'Nobody'

15 March 2023 | 1:37 pm | Mary Varvaris
Originally Appeared In

"The album is a journey through an existential crisis..."

(Pic by Brian Catelle)

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Avenged Sevenfold have announced their new record, Life Is But A Dream…, their first since 2016’s The Stage, will be released on 2 June. 

The album announcement arrives with a new single, Nobody - it’s their first new song since the band released the previously unreleased number from the Hail To The King sessions, Set Me Free, in 2020.

What’s immediately noticeable about the new single is M. Shadows' vocals, which have never sounded so fragile. Some fans will argue that he sounds weaker, which would naturally happen after decades of screaming, but he’s making the new vocal tone work for the song.

Speaking of, Nobody is a doom-metal-influenced track, meaning that it’s slow and steady with a gradual buildup. However, there’s still a roaring guitar solo from Synyster Gates; if you had any doubt about him, that’s quickly erased.

A press release about new music reads, “Avenged Sevenfold's new album, Life Is But A Dream, is best served as a whole and consumed en masse to truly appreciate its musical breadth and sonic depth (per Forbes). 

“Written and recorded over the span of 4 years, it was produced by Joe Barresi and Avenged Sevenfold in Los Angeles and mixed by Andy Wallace in the Poconos, PA. 

"The album is a journey through an existential crisis; a very personal exploration into the meaning, purpose and value of human existence with the anxiety of death always looming.”

Barresi is known for his work with Tool, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, Queens Of The Stone Age, Parkway Drive, and many more.

In the lead-up to the album announcement, Avenged Sevenfold claimed to have been hacked, with an AI app stating that the band’s upcoming festival appearances at Sonic Temple and Welcome To Rockville had been cancelled. 

As Metal Injection reports, that was a ruse - the band fooled us by using AI voice modifiers for the "fake podcast" confirming their "festival cancellations," while the entire LIBAD5343.net tease website was written by Chat GPT and DALL-E 2.

Check out the Nobody music video below and pre-order the album here.