The clip below features Avenged Sevenfold taking a break at the Hard Rock Café in Helsinki, Finland on their The Stage Tour (March 6th). They got the brilliant idea of performing "Nightmare" on the bar's instruments after a few drinks. As to whether the booze affected their performance.... you be the judge.

 

Weeks after announcing a stadium summer run with Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold have revealed plans for a series of special headline shows that begin April 22nd in Las Vegas, NV. The dates will intersperse with the Metallica tour and include support acts Volbeat and A Day To Remember (each at different shows). The dates kick off at Las Rageous, where A7X will top the bill on a lineup featuring acts such as Mastodon and Eagles of Death Metal (see full itinerary below).

Members of Deathbat Nation, the band’s new—and first official—fan club will get first crack at tickets via an exclusive 24-hour pre-sale window that begins today (March 14th).

In October last year, Avenged Sevenfold played a groundbreaking live 360 Virtual Reality gig on the roof of Capitol Records in LA after which they surprised fans with the announcement that their new album The Stage – their first for Capitol Records - would be available that night. Previously they had made headlines with the release of the title track, co-produced by the band and Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool) and a companion video directed by Chris Hopewell (Radiohead, The Killers). The latter has already amassed well over 12 million YouTube views.

The Stage is a work of immense scope and ambition, featuring 11 panoramic tracks tied together by an Artificial Intelligence theme. Inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Elon Musk, the album is the band’s first thematic release. While the term “AI” conjures up images of robots and fantasy films, the band steers clear of a science fiction storyline. Instead, the album sees them taking a futurist’s look at the accelerated rate at which technology’s intelligence is expanding and what that means—good and bad—for the future.

The album’s epic 15-minute-plus closing track, “Exist”, features a guest appearance by award-winning astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson giving a spoken word performance he penned specifically for the album.

Tour dates are as follows:

April 
22 – Las Vegas, NV – Downtown Las Vegas Events Center**

May 
5 – Virginia Beach, VA – Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater**
7 – Concord, NC – Rock City Campground**
9 – Hershey, PA – GIANT Center***
10 – Baltimore, MD – M&T Bank Stadium^
12 – Philadelphia, PA – Lincoln Financial Field^
14 – East Rutherford, NJ – MetLife Stadium^

June 
7 – Denver, CO – Sports Authority Field^
11 – Houston, TX – NRG Stadium^
14 – San Antonio, TX – Alamodome 
16 – Dallas, TX – AT&T Stadium 
18 – Chicago, IL - Soldier Field
19 – Mt. Pleasant, MI – Soaring Eagle Casino Resort**

July
5 – Orlando, FL – Camping World Stadium^
7 – Miami, FL – Hard Rock Stadium^
9 – Atlanta, GA – SunTrust Park^
10 – Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center***
12 – Detroit, MI – Comercia Park^
13 – Oshkosh, WI – Ford Festival Park
14 – Cadott, WI – Rock Fest Amphitheater**
16 – Toronto, ON – Rogers Centre^
18 – Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion***
19 – Montreal, QB – Parc Jean-Drapeau^
28 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre+++
29 – Los Angeles, CA – Rose Bowl+
31 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center+++

August
3 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater+++
4 – Phoenix, AZ - University of Phoenix Stadium+
6 – San Diego, CA – Petco Park+
9 – Seattle, WA – CenturyLink Field+
11 – Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheatre+++
12 – Nampa (Boise), ID – Ford Idaho Center Amphitheater+++
14 – Vancouver, BC – BC Place+
16 – Edmonton, AB - Commonwealth Stadium+

** A7X headline show or festival date

*** A7X headline show with Volbeat opening

+++A7X headline show with A Day To Remember opening

^With Metallica + Volbeat

+With Metallica + Gojira