Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M.Shadows has never been a man short of an opinion and on a recent episode of The Bob Lefsetz Podcast he served up a couple of thoughts that might stir the pot in the trad metal community a little. 



Speaking about the state of modern metal, Shadows reveals that while he believes metal will always have a pulse, he does wish it was a little bit less insular and a lot more innovative. 

"I think the purely metal scene is always going to be there. Like you said, it's always got a pulse," he said. "I don't think the innovation is there, and I don't think the ability for fans to have an open mind for when something is innovative, something is different, is there. I think the great songwriting has been lost a little bit, as well as some of these eccentric pieces of music."

"When Metallica came out there was nothing like that. It seems like a lot of bands in my generation are just treading the same waters that Metallica's already done, and I think when you see great artists, a lot of them aren't in the metal scene. There's a lot of great art out there, and I would argue there are some amazing pop, some amazing hip hop, some amazing R&B, and some artists that are doing truly eccentric stuff."

A true metalhead himself, Shadow's criticism comes from a place of love and a desire to see the genre endure for all eternity, but he does think that the undying love of tradition and the rejection of bands that attempt to mix it up can be hurtful in some ways. 

"I think that hurts metal in a way, because I think a lot of times it's just this regurgitated sound that people will praise, and then it goes away, because if you're not in the scene, you don't care,"

Shadows later states that he thinks Deftones and Ghost are two bands that have succeeded in expanding the genre by bringing something fresh to metal, but ultimately he doubles down on his original point.

"Overall, as a scene, you don't see the experimentation that I would love to see."

You can listen to the whole podcast below. 

Shadows' comments do raise the question of if and when we see Avenged Sevenfold's follow up to The Stage we might be treated to something a little different than we're used to hearing from A7x. 

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