During a recent chat with Meltdown on Detroit’s WRIF station, Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance shared some major updates regarding the band’s future plans. With their highly anticipated North American summer trek alongside Good Charlotte just four months away, the musician detailed what fans can expect from their live performances.
“We’re just getting ready to start putting together some setlists and some announcements that I can’t really talk about, but we definitely have some things in the works in regards to getting this tour up and running, making it exciting, doing stuff that is kind of, in typical Avenged fashion, stuff that people don’t expect. And then putting together setlists and making some more touring announcements and basically putting in a lot of work to make sure that we open up some new songs, play some stuff people haven’t heard, maybe have never heard, maybe haven’t heard in a while, just really listening to our fans also. We don’t wanna be one of those bands that just goes up there and just plays the hits; we wanna go and make every concert an experience. And I think there’s some rock bands that do a really good job of that. And we’re just really working on making it the best experience. There’s no phoning it in. It’s not just a cut-and-paste repeat of the last tour. It’s gotta be special. So when you see this particular show, it’s gonna be one that says — hopefully 10, 20 years down the line, like, ‘Hey, did you see that tour? Because if you didn’t see that tour, you will not see that tour again.’ And that’s kind of something that we’ve always wanted to sort of bring to the table. So we’re just working on that. We’re just not gonna bring the same show twice.”
When asked if the band is currently working on fresh material in the studio, the guitarist confirmed they are actively writing with a very specific, disruptive goal in mind.
“We’re always writing and always trying to come up with the next idea that’s gonna completely, completely just divide the entire fanbase and send Reddit and the comment sections of Instagram on fire. So we’re well on our way to doing that. And I would say we are absolutely on that program right now.”
The guitarist also reflected on the highly experimental direction of their most recent studio album, 2023’s Life Is But A Dream…. Addressing the mixed and sometimes negative reactions from fans, he compared the current situation to the initial backlash they faced years ago during previous album cycles.
“Well, that’s the thing about music and the bands that we love. And what people don’t understand is what they’re not prepared for can be shocking. But later down the road, you realize, ‘Oh, that’s just what that band did.’ And it takes years sometimes for people to come around to certain things. And the reason that we know it is because we’ve been fortunate to have this long of a career and people are, like, ‘Well, City Of Evil‘s the best album.’ People are, like, ‘No, the self-titled is the best album.’ Or ‘The Stage is the best album.’ And I’m just sitting there scratching my head and, like, well, when City Of Evil came out, everyone hated it too. They’re, like, ‘What are you guys doing? These songs are too long. You can’t mix metal and punk rock and Guns N’ Roses style of rock and roll. And you guys have solos and dueling guitars like Iron Maiden. What are you guys doing?’ At the time, with every album, people are so divided, and it’s always been that way. And then later down the road, it’s like, ‘That’s my favorite album.’ ‘That’s my favorite album.’ So you kind of just write what you write and you leave it up to people to love it, hate it, catch up to it later down the road. But you always do it from the heart. You give it the best best effort that you can possibly put into it. You record it exactly how you want it to be heard. You make the lyrics exactly what you want ’em to be. There’s no phoning it in. We throw away 98% of everything that we write and purposely save exactly what we want to release. And for us, whether people like us or hate us, it’s always what we believe quality over quantity. Because there’s bands that just write songs and they have a good formula and then they just keep writing songs that sound like the same song in hopes that another one will hit and hit. And before you know it, they have a bunch of songs that are very much their sound but they never step outside the box. And for a person like me, that’s when I get bored and look for the next artist that’s trying to do something creative or keep me on my toes. Those are the ones that I go back to listening to for my whole life.”
Looking back at their own career growth, he heavily praised heavy metal icons Metallica. After sharing a massive US tour with the thrash legends nine years ago, he explained how they influenced Avenged Sevenfold‘s approach to live shows.
“We learned a ton, and it was because we’re such big fans. And we learned how they treat their fans, which is how a band should treat their fans. They really care about their fans. And they put everything into their shows. They give it their best performance. They put a lot of work into it. They change setlists. They do exciting things.”
He went on to defend some of the pioneering band’s most controversial releases, noting how that fearlessness inspired his own group to take creative risks.
“Honestly, and this is gonna be controversial, but we were touring in a van. And we were driving across the country playing small shows, and it was right at the time when [2003’s] St. Anger came out, and that was the most divisive Metallica album since Load and since Reload and since the ‘Black Album’. And you look back and people were, like, ‘What are they doing with the ‘Black Album’?’ ‘What are they doing with Load?’ ‘Where are these guys at?’ And then with St. Anger, it was, like, ‘What are they doing?’ It was the craziest-sounding [album]. And then we fell in love with it. It might not be our favorite Metallica album, but the thought behind it and the fact that it was so different and it had to be listened to, and they were just going for this thrashy raw sound using tones that weren’t perfect, studio, modern-day drum samples, which they’re fully able to accomplish, if they want — they can do whatever they want — they chose to go and just make this buck-wild album. And it was, like, ‘If Metallica can do that, then we can do that.’ … It’s still taking me a little bit longer to get into Lulu [Metallica‘s controversial 2011 collaborative disc with Lou Reed], but I love Lou Reed, so knowing that those guys are inspired by off-the-wall artists kind of caught me for a loop because they are such the epitome of a metal band. And then it’s, like, ‘Whoa. They stepped that far out of the box.’ It’s, like, ‘Oh, these guys just love music. These guys are just fans of music.’ And that’s probably why they’re so good at what they do, which is kind of cool.”
The upcoming 16-city North American tour featuring Avenged Sevenfold and Good Charlotte is promoted by Live Nation.
Avenged Sevenfold 2026 North American Tour Dates:
- Jul 25 – Ridgedale, MO @ Thunder Ridge Nature’s Arena
- Jul 27 – Prior Lake, MN @ Mystic Lake Amphitheater
- Jul 30 – Tinley Park, IL @ Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre
- Aug 01 – Maryland Heights, MO @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheater
- Aug 04 – Clarkston, MI @ Pine Knob Music Theatre
- Aug 06 – Toronto, ON @ RBC Amphitheatre
- Aug 08 – Montréal, QC @ Centre Bell
- Aug 10 – Belmont Park, NY @ UBS Arena
- Aug 12 – Mansfield, MA @ Xfinity Center
- Aug 14 – Camden, NJ @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion
- Aug 16 – Charlotte, NC @ PNC Music Pavilion
- Aug 18 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre
- Aug 21 – Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion
- Aug 23 – Denver, CO @ Ball Arena
- Aug 25 – West Valley City, UT @ Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
- Aug 27 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
- Aug 30 – Los Angeles, CA @ BMO Stadium (with A Day To Remember)
- Sep 05 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil @ Rock in Rio 2026 (Palco Mundo)
