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October 10, 2006

Brand New Balances 'Devil,' 'God' On New Album

October 10, 2006, 11:20 AM ET

Katie Hasty, N.Y.

Long Island quartet Brand New embraces polar opposites on its upcoming major label debut, "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me." As previously reported, the Interscope set hits stores Nov. 21 and was produced by the band and Mike Sapone, who helmed Brand New's 2001 debut "Your Favorite Weapon" and 2003's "Deja Entendu."

As implied by its title, the album's inter- and intrapersonal conflicts play a significant role in the band's bang-and-whimper rock style, encompassed best by opener "Sowing Season (Yeah)." Starting out softly, vocalist Jesse Lacey reveals "She's losing all her friends/losing them to drinking and to drugs," looping the sentiment until the band roars into hardcore attack mode.

His electric voice gets an equally electric guitar backing on "Millstone," with big tom drum breaks and layered vocals on lines like "I used to know the name of every person I kissed."

"Jesus Christ" is one of the more pop/punk-oriented tracks, with featherweight vocal harmonies and a steady drum beat that eventually boils over into a frenzy. The pre-chorus of "Degausser" is augmented with what seems like a dozen voices, its instrument tracks heavily panned and giving the song a paranoid feel.

Misery and love meet on "Limousine," where the sweet plucks on an acoustic guitar are offset by the miasma of creepy sounds in the background. "I can dish it out/but I can't take it," Lacey admits, "I love you so much/but do me a favor, baby/don't reply." "You Won't Know" is driven largely by its bass line and the all-instrumental "Welcome to Bangkok" is a flurry of activity, the guitar lines distorted to the point of noise somewhere between shredding and screeching.

New wave and glam show their colors on "Not the Sun," halting abruptly for the scary and lonesome "Luca," a tale of sending one's lover to the bottom of the sea. One of the few songs that clocks in under four minutes, "Untitled" continues the creepy theme and gives way to the album's biggest song, "Archers." Packed with dirty bass lines on the verses and clean, tambourine-laden, 4/4 drumbeat choruses, the song offers an enormous crescendo and a breakdown of all the vocal tracks singing in a round.

The set concludes with "Handcuffs," a melancholy reflection on punishment and indifference, as Lacey sings, "It's hard to be the better man/when you're still lying/it's hard to be the better man/when you forget you're trying."

Brand New begins a fall tour with Dashboard Confessional Friday (Oct. 13) in Mesa, Ariz.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003223808

Tags: billboard, brand new, jesse lacey

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Posted on 10/10/2006 10:12 AM Comments (0)

October 9, 2006

M. Shadows lays to rest rumors about why they walked offstage Sat in San Antonio

I was just wondering if what the little kids are saying is true about Fall Fest..
RUMOR has it that you guys stormed off stage because of "technical difficulties" and instead of trying to fix it you guys just left?? It has also been said that someone threw a guitar at the wall...

Now I myself believe that this was blown way out of proportion..
but rather then keep reading the RUMORS...
I thought I would go straight to the source...and get it from who would know best..yall got it right fo sho....TOO MUCH GARBAGE!!!!!

thanks, yo
<3 Manda

I will try and attempt to explain what happened at FallFest, even though a lot of these kids that know it all have jumped to their own conclusions. (If your not in a band that has played a radio festival before you probably have zero credibility to be talking like you know what happened or how we should have acted)
There are two sets of crews for radio shows. The local crew that sets up the stage, patches mic cables, brings in the P.A. and makes sure the show runs smoothly, and our crew which is our sound guy, guitar techs, drum tech and others. Basically, we were playing early in the day for some reason unknown to me after two bands that had probably 1/10th the gear and equipment Avenged Sevenfold has to put on a show.
The local crew couldn't get anything right. Everything was patched wrong so if you turned up Zackys guitar, my mic would feed back. If Syn wanted his mic up, The Revs kick drum would go up in every ones in-ears. This went on for 45 min (we were 15 min. late to hit the stage) as they tried to fix the problem with our crew trying to help them the whole time. Since it's a radio show they told us we had to go on stage. So we went out only to find that not only were the in-ears mis patched but the whole front of house was as well. How can you take 32 tracks and mix them when you have no clue what track is what? You can't. I was furious about the fact that we couldn't hear a Goddamn thing in the in-ears, but when I took them out, I heard that front of house was even worse off then us. We played for about 45 seconds through nothing but feedback and no tonality whatsoever. It was embarrassing, and it was embarrassing for Avenged fans having to hear that shit. So I flipped out and was not going to stand there through that for 40 min. There was no fixing the problem unless everything was re patched, which is about a 35 min job.
Again, its a radio show, they would not let us re patch for 35 min. and then start again. So we left. The reason that all the other bands sounded fine was because after we played they obviously had to go fix the problem. Even though Stone Sour and Breaking Benjamin still had patching problems, it wasn't every channel.
And to the kids that keep saying we are trying to be like GnR... get over yourselves, quit trying to take a band that influences us and comparing everything we do with them. If we told you the Sex Pistols were an influences half of you would say Johnny Christ is trying to be like Sid vicious and we stormed off stage because we want to have and attitude like Johnny Rotten. Try not to be a guinea pig and think for yourself. The fact of the matter is everyone has bad days, and this was a bad day for Avenged Sevenfold. We are sorry to the kids that didn't get to see us play, but I don't regret our actions. I was not going to put us, or our fans through 40 min. of the worst Avenged show in the history of shows. We did not go out and explain ourselves or apologize that day because the venue wanted us escorted off the property right after the show. So that's basically what happened in a nutshell, and as I'm writing this I'm still upset about Saturday. But whatever, time to write a new record and put this behind us.

P.S. To people talking about sound problems on Ozzfest. I think we found a solution. I always knew it sounded great if you listened from the sound board. Ted is an amazing sound guy and has been the subject of some of the biggest mixing magazines. That and we also have him tape every show on video from his position and it sounds great. One night he was mixing The Confession for me and I was listening from and angle. Not straight on but to the left a little and all I could hear was drums and bass, kinda like some of the complaints we've gotten. So I talked to him about it yesterday and I found out he's been mixing in Stereo. Which means Zackys guitar is in one speaker on his side of the stage and Syns is in the other. It's basically how the CD is mixed and it sounds great if you are standing in the middle of the arena. But if you are on the side, you are getting full power from all the other instruments, but only 1 guitar, which means the guitar is getting buried. So from now on I asked him to mix the bigger venues in MONO so that people off to the side get both guitars and not one or the other. Should fix the problem.

from avengedsevenfold.com/forums

Tags: atalush, avenged sevenfold, johnny christ, m shadows, synyster gates, the rev, zacky vengeance

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Posted on 10/09/2006 3:36 PM Comments (5)

October 4, 2006

Avenged Sevenfold Seek Rat-Infested Garage To Record Next LP (RS and MTV)

* AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. SHADOWS has spoken out about the band's recent fall tour cancellation, telling MTV, "I think that once you're not feeling it live anymore, that's how you get yourself in trouble as a band. People start arguing with each other, and it's not cool." The operatic metalheads are using their time off to work on a new album with several producers. "It's cool to mix it up a little bit," explained Shadows. "Like how Korn used [AVRIL LAVIGNE producers] THE MATRIX on a bunch of songs -- they had a whole revival. We're just keeping our options open." Among those options? Writing in the rat-infested garage where the group worked on their first three records for a "gritty feel ... not some polished crap just 'cause we've got a couple songs on the radio now."

-RS

Avenged Sevenfold Seek Rat-Infested Garage To Record Next LP
10.04.2006 6:00 AM EDT

'It's not [going to be] some polished crap just 'cause we've got a couple songs on the radio,' says M. Shadows.
Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows
Photo: Michael Buckner/ Getty Images

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 (see "Guns N' Roses Take On Aguilera, Chester Bennington Joins Alice In Chains At 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 (see "Avenged Sevenfold Don't Expect A Moonman, Set Sights On New LP"), 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."

— Corey Moss

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1542300/20061003/avenged_sevenfold.jhtml?headlines=true