In a recent interview with The Bob Leftsetz Podcast, Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows explained why they left the previous label, Warner Brothers.
Avenged Sevenfold signed with Warner Brothers in 2003 after releasing their second studio album ‘Waking The Fallen.’ In 2005, their record titled ‘City of Evil‘ came out through Warner Brothers. The next one with the label was the band’s self-titled album, released in 2007.
While the band was working on an upcoming album, some news indicated that Warner Brothers sued Avenged Sevenfold because the band wanted to leave the label. The band members wanted to go because the managers they initially signed with were not working there, as they stated previously.
After the band released the albums entitled ‘Nightmare’ and ‘Hail to the King,’ they announced that the upcoming concept album called ‘The Stage’ would be released under Capitol in 2016. Avenged Sevenfold worked with Capitol on the first live acoustic album, ‘Live at the Grammy Museum,’ released in 2017.
M. Shadows talked about in a recent interview why they were sued by Warner Brothers, explaining they had a seven-year clause with the label not to leave. M. Shadows stated the band wanted to work with the people they initially started. The rocker mentioned that they wanted to have the records they did with Warner Brothers by making a deal.
The frontman explained in his words:
“There’s a lot that goes into that. We pulled the old seven-year clause that we were trying to get out of our deal, but the reality is we wanted our masters back. We wanted to make some deal and be able to own our recordings or possibly re-sign and get a check, all the things you can do. And then we started thinking about the seven-year clause, and we actually wanted to see if we could help artists out in a way.
The people we had a problem with at Warner Brothers that simply weren’t engaged in the band had left, and some new people came in, and they flew out. We basically broke bread and said this record we did with Capitol Records, come back to Warner Brothers, finish up your deal, and we’ll deal with it from there. So, obviously a lot of rabbit holes in there.”
M. Shadows explained why they were not satisfied working with Warner Brothers, stating that the new employees ignored the band. Because they did not support Avenged Sevenfold as much as the people they initially started to work with, the band decided to continue with Capitol, as Shadows mentioned. The rocker added that they were the only band who made an album with a new label while they had a case with the previous one.
He continued in the same interview:
“When our 2014 record, ‘Hail To The King,’ came out, we noticed that no one at the label cared about our band. Basically, they’d come to the recordings, they’d come and check out the record, and it was just everyone’s on their phone, and there was just no support.
So we tried to get a better deal or at least get our masters back and get out of there. We went over to Capitol Records and put out a record. I think we’re the only band that actually put out an album while we were still in some litigation over the seven-year clause, which caused a huge uproar between the labels and ourselves.”
Later on, the band returned to Warner Brothers after working with Capitol on a studio album and an acoustic live album. The band has still been working with Warner Brothers since 2018.
