AVENGED SEVENFOLD drummer Arin Ilejay recently spoke with Omaha.com about the band's new album, Hail To The King. An excerpt is available below:

Q: There's a big classic rock influence on Hail To The King. Where did that come from?

A: "It's an evolution of what the band wants. A lot of it had to do with growing up. At a young age, they wanted to show their interest, and their interest was deeply in hard-core. They had a bit of an awakening and said, 'Let's look back at our roots. What do we want to do? We really want to be heard everywhere, and we want to play everywhere.' So we asked, 'What do the greats do? What are the bands that are still touring today that we loved as kids?' And those are bands like METALLICA and IRON MAIDEN. Avenged Sevenfold wants to be a classic band, and we wanted to make a classic record that really explodes."

Click here for the complete interview.

MACHINE HEAD vocalist and guitarist Robb Flynn recently posted his latest entry in The General Journals, poking a little fun at Avenged Sevenfold. It reads as follows:

"Congratulations to Avenged Sevenfold on their latest 'covers album' coming in at #1, who knew that re-recording METALLICA, GUNS N' ROSES, and MEGADETH songs could be such a worldwide hit!!?? Ba-dap Psssssss!!"

"In case you've been living under a rock, Avenged came in at #1 in multiple countries throughout the world. I'm happy for them. Good band. And while I like the new record, and really dug the last record Nightmare, hopefully we're all coming down from our post-orgasmic #1-album-bliss, because it's time to call a spade a spade! It's time to poke a little fun at A7X, cause there's some blatant jackery goin' on there wiggas! So here are my top 10 jokes about the new Avenged Sevenfold record:"

10) Avenged Sevenfold - Now with even MORE Metallica

9) Avenged Sevenfold to change name to Sad But Two

8) Number of 'spurting penises' drawn on Avenged logos suddenly skyrockets

7) Eyeliner sales skyrocket as thousands of heartbroken goth girls realize 'Hail To The King' is actually "that ugly AC/DC band's song 'Thunderstruck'"

6) After hearing 'Heretic', Dave Mustaine flips out, blames Obama, Metallica and UFO's for the A7X stealing 'Symphony Of Destruction'

5) After seeing how much success the band Bush had stealing other band names for song titles, A7X decided to steal In Flames for latest chorus. Future chorus lyrics include Tr-vi-um and Kill-switch En-gage

4) Upon hearing latest album, Lars Ulrich goes all gangsta, breaks bottle of Dom Perignon on M. Shadows head, while his 11ft girlfriend put Shadows in headlock, as he screams in Shadows face, "You're gonna rip off St. Anger next right, huh?"

3) "Black album" sales skyrocket as fans realise where new songs came from

2) After hearing Avenged's Guns N' Roses cover 'Doing Time', Axl actually calls Slash, says, "Dude, What The Fuck?!"

1) And the #1 joke about the new Avenged Sevenfold album: Avenged Sevenfold release statement that they're NOT ripping off Metallica, announce side project with Lou Reed

Produced by Mike Elizondo, Hail To The King is the follow up to the band's 2010 release, Nightmare, which debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, Hard Rock Chart and Digital Chart.

Hail To The King tracklisting:

'Shepherd Of Fire'

'Hail To The King'

'Doing Time'

'This Means War'

'Requiem'

'Crimson Day'

'Heretic'

'Coming Home'

'Planets'

'Acid Rain'

‘Hail To The King’ video:

Avenged Sevenfold are streaming Hail To The King (Warner Bros. Records) below: