Avenged Sevenfold Seek Rat-Infested Garage To Record Next LP

DEVORE, California - As M. Shadows sees it, Avenged Sevenfold had no choice but to cancel their fall tours of the U.S. and the U.K.

"I think that once you're not feeling it live anymore, that's how you get yourself in trouble as a band," the singer said of the recently canceled outings with Bleeding Through. "People start arguing with each other, and it's not cool."

There's no friction within Avenged now, but the band figured, why risk it?

"I don't think being in the spotlight too long is healthy," Shadows explained backstage at KROQ's recent Inland Invasion. "We've been touring on this record for 16 months now, and we're like, 'Enough's enough.' We were kind of going through the motions for a while, playing the same songs, so we were like, 'We need to write some new stuff.' "

The band's already been writing some material, and Shadows is promising something "completely different."

"The last thing we're going to do is write City of Evil part 2 or Waking the Fallen part 2," Shadows said. "It's not going to be a thrash record or old-school or anything like that. I know it's going to be a sound that no one's heard -- kind of like when Korn came out, they were the first ones to start that whole scene and they sounded different than everybody. We want to do that for our own generation."

Shadows referred to Korn again when explaining Avenged Sevenfold's plan to work with a variety of producers on the project.

"We've met a lot of new friends this year, and hopefully we'll get a lot of different people to work with us and do something really different," he said. "From Lil Jon to Paul Wall to All-American Rejects. I just sang on the Good Charlotte record. Those guys are good producers. All these different people, they know what they're doing and can work with different kinds of music. It's cool to mix it up a little bit. Like how Korn used the Matrix on a bunch of songs -- they had a whole revival. And I don't think we need a revival or anything, we're just keeping our options open."

First things first, though, as Avenged Sevenfold plan to convene in one of their garages to finish writing.

"Our first three records were written in a garage with rats running around, just with a Pro Tools [recording] setup," Shadows said. "And that's how we're going to write this record. If we upgrade, we'll have a drum set miked in there and we'll actually jam a little bit live."

The band may never even make it to an actual studio.

"It's just going to be gritty," Shadows said. "We want it to be a cool record, not some polished crap just 'cause we've got a couple songs on the radio now. No one needs it to be like that. We're going to do the exact opposite."