Introduce yourself, tell us what you do in Avenged Sevenfold and how long the band has been together.

M.Shadows, I do vocals for Avenged Sevenfold. We have been together for a little over 3 years.

What are your impressions of the Orange County music scene and how does Avenged Sevenfold fit into all this?

I think there are alot of great bands. But as far as the scene goes everyone knows A7X hates the scene and all the bullshit that goes along with 16 - 20 year old kids that can't think for themselves. I got my first Pantera album when I was 12 years old and listened to Guns N' Roses all my life, mostly because of my Dad exposing me to metal. Then came Iron Maiden, Prong, Nailbomb, Megadeth and all the metal you can think of. By high school I was fully into Epitaph/Fat punk and all kinds of hardcore such as Uniform Choice, Gorilla Biscuits, Minor Threat and what kids nowadays call hardcore like Disembodied, V.O.D., Earth Crisis. I've listened to this music too long to have some little dumbshit tell me what's cool to listen too. And that’s all the scene seems like nowadays. I don't even go to shows anymore because of this. All those kids will grow out of it so why should we participate in it? They love you one day then more kids find out about you and your getting popular and all of a sudden they hate you. We just play the music we like to play, not for a scene, or a certain group of kids, but for ourselves and the kids that understand what we are doing and want to get some positive aggression out at shows and really relate to what we are doing musically and lyrically.

If you had to describe your music to an very old relative, what would you say?

Heavy Metal. That’s all they can usually understand. Everyone in a band knows when you see old relatives, the worst thing to do is talk to them about the band and what you sound like. It's like beating a dead horse.

Warmness Of The Soul is such a heartfelt song yet sounds totally bizarre within the context of the album. What made you decide to release it as a single and is the song written for anyone in particular?

It was written for my longtime girlfriend Valary. Anyone that goes to one of our shows will usually see her selling merch or doing something to help us out. We wrote that song cause at the time we wanted something really soft to break up the album. A lot of older metal bands did this and we liked the idea, so we just said fuck it and went with it. I'm glad we did it because I think either kids understood and respected us for it or they called us pussies and wrote it off, not even commenting on if they liked the song or not. And those are the types of kids we don't want listening to us anyway, they are the ones that are so short sighted that once you do anything different they will call you "a sellout" and will turn their back on you. Fuck those kids.

Where do you get the ideas for some of the other lyrics on the album?

A lot of the lyrics come from personal experiences. Things that really leave a mark on me and when I get home I need to vent. I usually don't write very straightforward because I feel if I leave it open for interpretation then more people will be able to relate.

With your lyrics and music being so dark, wasn't it weird to play in the noon time daylight at Furnacefest? What were your impressions of the overall show?

It wasn't weird at the fest because we had already done Warped Tour earlier that summer so it was like the same thing. Warped Tour was weird at first but after a couple shows we loved it. The tour was amazing. Furnace Fest was our last show and I thought it was pretty cool. Nice to hang out with alot of friends we had met on the road. We will be doing Warped Tour again this year with some California dates, so we are looking forward to that.

You've gone on tour with some fairly impressive bands. What has been the best and worst part of touring so far?

The worst part has been dealing with our van. Six months of straight touring and we went through three transmissions. That was absolute hell. The best was being on tour with Mushroomhead, Shadows Fall and High on Fire. We had the greatest times of our lives on that tour. Lots of drinking, big crowds every night and great friends.

Are there any Avenged Sevenfold groupies lurking around the dark shadows?

I wouldn't want to call them groupies, but there are some crazy Avenged fans out there. We appreciate every single one of them.

How close is Avenged Sevenfold to recording a new album and what are the names of some of the songs on it?

We are actually demoing new songs in early February and should be recording the actual album around April. We are looking at a late summer release. A few songs on it are named Reminissions, Second Heartbeat, and A Little Taste of Poison.

The album name Sounding The Seventh Trumpet has an almost religious symbolism to it. What made you guys decide to title your album that and how, if at all, are you influenced by religious or Christian imagery?

We think the imagery is great. The Bible and it's stories are great, whether you decide to believe in it or not. None of us are Christians, we all have our own beliefs, but we do like to paint a picture with songs and art and titles from religious symbols and stories. I think it's more interesting then seeing an album cover with 30 kids jumping on a lead singer for a mic or hearing another song about everyday problems. It lets you take a break from all that and get away.

If Britney Spears was doing a tribute album and invited your band to participate, would you do it, and if so, what song would you do and why?

Like I said before, we play music for the music, so if it sounds fun we would do it. I don't know the names of many of her songs but I guess we could do a metal cover of Oops I Did It Again.

What member of Avenged Sevenfold is most likely to quit the group to join a boy band?

The Rev. is as sexy as they come and he's got the vocal chops to pull it off, but Zacky's got the look. So I think we would have two most likelys.

Is anyone in Avenged Sevenfold involved with any other band or solo project?

Right now everything as sorta stopped except for Avenged. But The Rev. and Synyster have a project of more metal influence goblin metal, if you will. Its a crazy mix of music called Pinkly Smooth. Everyone else basically just works on A7X full time.

Do you have any messages for fans or people who might be interested in checking out your music?

If you’re new and wanna check us out visit www.avengedsevenfold.com. And to the fans reading this... darkness coats us, new album drops this summer.

If the world were to suddenly come to an end, what last song would you want to hear before the final explosion?

The Final Countdown by Europe.