AVENGED SEVENFOLD ANNOUNCE DECEMBER 15 RELEASE DATE FOR DELUXE VERSION OF THE STAGE
For immediate release:
FEATURES SEVEN ADDITIONAL STUDIO SONGS AND FOUR UNRELEASED LIVE TRACKS – PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE NOW
10 OCTOBER 2017 (Toronto, ON) – Avenged Sevenfold announces the release of the deluxe version of their critically acclaimed album, The Stage on December 15 via Capitol Records/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company. The deluxe version features seven additional studio songs and four unreleased live tracks recorded during the band’s recent shows at The O2 arena in London. Among the seven bonus tracks is the band’s stunning cover of the Pink Floyd classic, “Wish You Were Here”. The band has also announced the first leg of The Stage World Tour. See below for a list of Canadian dates.
Watch the “Wish You Were Here” companion video here.
Pre-order the deluxe version of The Stage here.
The deluxe edition is the latest chapter in an innovative album cycle that began 12 months ago when Avenged Sevenfold “surprise-released” The Stage, becoming the first-ever rock band to drop an unannounced album in digital and physical form. The band (vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman) announced the album’s release to millions of surprised fans who had been watching their live-streamed set from the rooftop of the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood, CA. That groundbreaking event saw the quintet give a 3D/360-degree virtual reality performance that enabled fans around the globe to experience Avenged Sevenfold’s electrifying show as if they were there for the first-of-its-kind immersive event.
Months later, the forward-thinking band announced plans to transform The Stage into an evolving body of work by adding a series of new tracks over the course of several months.
Those songs – which began with a scintillating rendition of Mexican folk song “Malagueña Salerosa” – have been previously unavailable for purchase, but fan demand for the tracks brings the album to its current stage as a deluxe release. In addition to the album’s original 11 tracks, the deluxe version features A7X’s reimagining of Mr. Bungle’s “Retrovertigo”, original track “Dose”, a cover of Del Shannon’s 1961 No. 1 hit, “Runaway” (featuring a guest appearance by Vandals’ guitarist Warren Fitzgerald and lead vocals by Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance), the band’s version of The Beach Boys’ 1966 hit, “God Only Knows” and most recently, their rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By”. The four concert recordings included on the album are title track “The Stage,” “Paradigm,” “Sunny Disposition” and “God Damn.”
About Avenged Sevenfold’s version of “Wish You Were Here,” lead singer M. Shadows says, “This is the song that started us down the rabbit hole with our recent cover recordings. I’ve always loved this song and though I felt it would be impossible to capture the somberness of the original, we approached it with another purpose. There’s a poignancy to the song that seems appropriate with everything going on in the world today. We put a bit of a modern twist on it to reintroduce it at a time when it might help capture what some of us are feeling.”
ABOUT AVENGED SEVENFOLD
Avenged Sevenfold became one of the world’s biggest rock bands by creating a sound that broke through obstacles of language, distance and culture. They raised the stakes and standards for the genre with a string of blockbuster albums, including their 2005 platinum-selling breakthrough, City Of Evil, 2007’s platinum-selling Avenged Sevenfold and two consecutive No. 1’s on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart: 2010’s Nightmare and 2013’s Hail To The King. They’ve achieved Diamond, Platinum and Gold awards for album sales in nearly a dozen countries, racked up over a billion video views and a billion-plus Spotify streams, have consistently been one of the most-played bands on rock radio for over a decade with multiple No. 1 singles, and have headlined arenas and the biggest rock festivals around the globe, amassing a diehard international fan base whose members number in the millions.
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Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage World Tour Dates:
21 January 2018 – Ottawa, ON @ Canadian Tire Centre
22 January 2018 – Hamilton, ON @ FirstOntario Centre
Tickets available here.