Within the age of streaming algorithms and generative AI, artists are more and more confronted with the problem of staying true to their artistic instincts whereas navigating public expectations. For Avenged Sevenfold, that stress is entrance and heart of their most up-to-date and polarizing launch, Life Is However A Dream…
The album, which took 4 years to craft, represents a deep dive into the human situation. Produced by Joe Barresi alongside the band and combined by Andy Wallace within the Poconos, Life Is However A Dream… is something however standard. It is an existential odyssey, exploring themes of mortality, function, and the worth of existence—topics far faraway from the safer floor many rock bands tread.
In a brand new interview with Rock Feed, frontman M. Shadows defined that the band by no means approached this report with fan approval in thoughts. As a substitute, they embraced a riskier, extra introspective path.
“Dave Farrell from Linkin Park — we had been at dinner most likely a yr in the past and we had been speaking about Life Is However A Dream…, and he mentioned… We had been on this very nice restaurant, and there was a bunch of individuals round. And he says, ‘When you had been to take your report proper now, or any report that you simply love, and present it to everyone right here, how a lot weight would you place behind any of those folks’s opinions?’ And the answer is zero,” M. Shadows mentioned (through Blabbermouth)
That anecdote set the tone for Shadows’ broader philosophy on suggestions—one which favors boldness over consensus.
“And so, on the finish of the day, we’re not making artwork by committee,” he defined. “This is not artwork by committee. It is not, like, everyone give us your concepts and we’re all gonna sort of morph the identical factor. Now we have A.I. to try this now; you are gonna be capable to take your favourite information, and A.I. can spit out one thing form of prefer it. However you want artists and creatives to maintain pushing the boundaries. Some issues are gonna work, some issues aren’t. However on the finish of the day, even when one thing does not work, it’d spark in another person, ‘Oh, that was daring. The place can I push limits slightly extra?’ And I feel that is how this entire house thrives.”
In a panorama the place immediate reactions and scorching takes usually dominate, M. Shadows has made peace with letting all of it go — good and unhealthy.
“So for me, I could not care much less about different folks’s opinions, however one rule I made myself a very long time in the past is I take heed to the positivity equally to the negativity, that means I do not care about both. If a evaluation is a ten out of 10, cool. It could possibly be purchased and paid for. Cool. It does not matter. If it is a zero out of 10, it additionally does not matter. So I feel that you may’t simply stroll round with all of your good things after which ignore the unhealthy. You need to sort of ignore them each, in my view.”
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