The latest track, and first in 6 years, from Avenged Sevenfold has been, to put it plainly, divisive. When I spoke with Johnny Christ about the new single he told me it really isn’t a “single” in a standard idea, more a “first foot forward”.
‘That’s why I continue to say, ‘Nobody’ is our first foot forward…because it’s not a traditional single…to me it was always the song the fans were going to hear first, from day one of the demo, since I first heard that riff, since I first heard that chorus, since we put everything together, I was like “that’s it that’s definitely going to be the dipping of the toes because it just sets your ear up to hear that stuff…it’s not like any other song on the record I’ll tell you that.’
It has been since 2016 when Avenged Sevenfold released The Stage. An album that marked a changing in the way the wanted to make music and release it. Johnny talked about what happened in the last 7 years to get us to where we are right now. Which included a camping trip that changed his entire perspective of life and it’s meaning.
‘I went on a camping trip where you were completely off the grid for a week and definitely took some Psilocybin and did some hiking and it was a good time with some friends and broke me down quite a bit to the point of tears…I think a lot of people don’t recognize when they’re depressed and when they’ve already broken down the ego…and take a breath to realize what that really is.’
After going through his self realization trip he said he met with the band and they all agreed on the same thing.
‘And at the end of it I came to the same conclusion that my brothers in arms did, that’s “if we’re going to continue to do this thing that we absolutely love doing together we gotta make everything bold. Why mess around and…tippy toe around ideas…if it’s not bold enough it’s not making the record.’
Before we said our goodbyes and promises of beers in the future Johnny gave me a major theme of the album Life Is But A Dream and that was death. More so the finality of death.
‘I think the overarching philosophy on this is, especially lyrically, is just the absurdism and coming to grips with what we believe through our own lives is at the end it’s just the end…there is an actual distinct and definite end to everything…and coming to grips with that…and dropping into the abyss of nothingness…’
He expands on that and how the band had to go through some pretty heavy existential crisis to get to that point in their lives. Truly a deep and fascinating conversation that has made June 2nd an exciting day to hear new music.
Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends
Become Nothing
Lessen Your Want
Looking Inside
Thoughts For the Free Life
Healing the World
Nobody
