Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Avenged Sevenfold are marking the tenth anniversary of their 2016 album “The Stage” with a series of special vinyl editions, including an expanded four-LP version and a collector-oriented “Monolith” box set.
The standard anniversary edition features the album on two LPs with a foil cover. A deluxe four-LP package adds recordings from the band’s Capitol Records rooftop performance staged around the original album launch.
The larger “Monolith” box combines the two-LP anniversary album and four-LP deluxe edition with an exclusive one-LP release titled “Live at the Grammys”.
Other extras in the box include a mystery trading card from ten possible variants, a holographic sticker, a printed version of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s speech, a star guide and an AI-assisted retrospective on the album’s predictions.
Reflecting on the record, the band noted that its themes of artificial intelligence and humanity’s relationship with technology have become even more relevant over the past decade.
The album was originally released as a surprise in October 2016 and remains one of Avenged Sevenfold‘s most ambitious progressive-metal releases. Anniversary products are being offered through the band’s official merchandise store.
The American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, often known as A7X, was founded in 1999 and is based in Huntington Beach, California. Vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ, and drummer Brooks Wackerman make up the band’s current lineup.
Avenged Sevenfold is renowned for their stunning visuals on album covers and merchandise, as well as their varied rock style. The band’s first album, “Sounding the Seventh Trumpet”, gave them a metalcore sound, which they mostly maintained in their second album, “Waking the Fallen”. By their third album and first major label release, “City of Evil”, the band had developed a more conventional heavy metal sound. Before Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, the band’s original drummer, passed away in 2009, they continued to experiment with new sounds with their self-titled album and experienced ongoing mainstream success.
