AVENGED SEVENFOLD Singer: 'You Have To Give People Things That Frighten Them A Little Bit'

During a brand new interview with San Antonio's Current, AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows was asked if his band ever suffered from the "successful band syndrome" — meaning that they were loved, or at least respected, by critics until they started selling some records.

"You can't be everything at once," Shadows replied. "There's always going to be small factions of people that are very vocal in their opinion of you when you're not exactly what they want you to do.

"When we started as a very young band in the Orange County hardcore scene, as soon as we started separating ourselves from that, all those kids wouldn't come to our shows. They hated us because we sang and were a little bit more melodic. But that happens. We were a cool band to watch at Warped Tour, but if you ask those kids now they'll say, 'No, AVENGED SEVENFOLD is not a Warped band; they suck.' 'They're too big, corporate.' The bigger you get, you get that. So we just write the music we want to write, we go on tour, do the production we want to do, and we basically live in our own little bubble. We really don't care what anyone says."

He continued: "I'm a firm believer that people don't know what they want until they get it.

"There are very few bands that I still listen to that write the same record over and over, one being AC/DC, and one being NOFX, they always do the same and I love them, but most other bands I fall out of love with because they do the same things but they no longer move me or challenge me. That's what we want to do with our band: to move you in ways you didn't necessarily think you wanted. You have to give people things that frighten them a little bit, throws them off but then they get into it. That's how things evolve."

Shadows also spoke about relationship AVENGED SEVENFOLD's relationship with Mike Elizondo, who produced two albums in a row for the band after years of self-production.

"We never found that sixth member we were looking for until we found Mike," Shadows said. "We were open to bounce off ideas with different people, but we didn't want to work with anybody. But Mike came with all these ideas and an ample knowledge of metal music. He knew absolutely everything about our band. He grew up basically on the slums of L.A. and all he ever did was play in progressive metal bands. His biggest influence is Steve Harris from IRON MAIDEN. We hit it off and started bouncing ideas. We concluded he could give something to the band and we could trust him. When [AVENGED SEVENFOLD drummer] Jimmy ['The Rev' Sullivan] died [in 2009], he was with us all the time and we formed a friendship that is very valuable to this band. We did two records and hopefully we'll continue."