AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman M. Shadows recently spoke with Front magazine about the band's new album, Hail To The King. An excerpt is available below:

Q: Your sound’s changed a lot over six albums, do you get lots of shit from old fans?

M. Shadows. "Every record we get shit. We get shit if we stay the same and we get shit if we change. When we put out City Of Evil after Waking The Fallen there was a shitstorm. We thought it was really great but people were going 'This fuckin’ sucks!' They were calling us sellouts – probably eight of the eleven songs on that record are over eight minutes long, that’s like the least sellout move ever. You can’t really win."

Q: You guys are unashamedly aiming high, aiming to be the biggest band in the world.

M. Shadows: "Sometimes we get asked loaded questions, like 'IRON MAIDEN and METALLICA can’t headline Download forever, so are you guys next?' I’d be a pussy to say no, because I’d like to do that, yet I’m an egotistical dick if I say yes. The honest answer is, the fans are going to decide if they want to see us take up that mantle. Somebody needs to do that, because you can’t have Maiden headline every festival, and you can’t have obscure metal bands headlining the second stage at a festival where the headliners are MUMFORD & SONS and THE LUMINEERS. Metal needs to be exposed to more people, so it’s good for rock if there’s bigger bands. American radio rock bands aren’t gonna cut it, it’s got to be real, classically influenced metal that stays true to what metal is. If we’re that band, I’m up for it."

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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: