Avenged Sevenfold: The Stage 2LP 180g Vinyl

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set spreads all 73 minutes over four sides of 180g vinyl in a gatefold jacket. It debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200, and the title track earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Song.

This edition

2LP set
180g vinyl
Gatefold jacket
Pressed in the EU

About the album

Most bands tease a new album with a single. Avenged Sevenfold projected their Deathbat logo onto major buildings around the world, then surprised everybody by dropping The Stage with almost no warning. It's their first concept album, a sprawling look at artificial intelligence and a society racing to outsmart itself, and the first with drummer Brooks Wackerman behind the kit. The band wrote and recorded it through 2016, keeping the whole thing under wraps until the very last moment.

Produced with Joe Barresi, the music leans hard into progressive metal. "Paradigm" and the title track set the tone, "Sunny Disposition" brings in a brass section, "God Damn" unleashes one of the fastest thrash riffs they've written before an acoustic bridge, and "Creating God" and "Angels" show off M. Shadows' range. Every song ties back to the central story, so it rewards listening start to finish. "Exist" closes the album as a 15-minute instrumental odyssey capped by a spoken passage from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Zacky Vengeance called it "pretty much completely aggro." It is also the longest record the band has made, so do put the kettle on before side D.

Also at Kops: more Avenged Sevenfold on vinyl · browse Metal