The Big Hit That Avenged Sevenfold Intentionally ‘Dumbed Down’ (And It Worked)

In a new interview with Bradley Hall, Avenged Sevenfold‘s M. Shadows revealed that the band’s Hail to the King album was a more reactionary album after feeling that the band didn’t have any mainstream smash hits and their personal experiment yielded what has turned out to be their biggest commercial success to date, the Hail to the King album’s title track.

What M. Shadows Said About the Hail to the King Album

The interview with Hall proved to be a deeper dive of the band’s musical history touching on different points in their career. When Hall brought up Hail to the King, Shadows revealed that the full album was more of a reactionary response to something that had troubled them at that point.

“Hail to the King was a response to the fact that we were a big band, but everywhere we went none of our songs could be played anywhere like in a bar, like we have nothing that lives up to AC/DC or Metallica’s Black Album or all these records that we love, all of our stuff’s a little too complex, a little too complicated, a little too neoclassical,” he explained.

“So we started really cutting close obviously to wearing our influences very much on our sleeves in this sort of dumbed-down version of rock music, and that’s not a shot on those bands because they do it brilliantly, they do it better than us, but we wanted to try our hand at doing some things like that, it’s very unnatural for us. It’s not what we do.”

READ MORE: We Answer the Most Asked Questions About Avenged Sevenfold

Shadows continued, “It’s simplified, but we were able to, I think we’re smart enough guys to piece together, ‘Oh it’s simple drums, it’s a more scooped sound on the toms, yeah it’s a lower volume of guitar that actually feels bigger when you put it with the bass, it’s you know a vocal that is very simple, there’s not a lot of harmonies. It’s one vocal that’s kind of yelling at you.’ It’s almost like can you take this vocal melody and sing it to your kid as a lullaby and so we took all those things and we made Hail to the King.”

What M. Shadows Said About the Song “Hail to the King”

“Unfortunately, ‘Hail to the King’ worked. it’s our biggest song and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s a funny thing that that’s the song that is almost at a billion views and it’s the song that people hear first,” says Shadows. “I don’t know if that’s more of a commentary on us or more of a commentary on the typical rock listener, but yeah ‘Hail to the King’ is one of those things where it’s just a funny little experiment.”

Avenged Sevenfold, “Hail to the King”

What Else M. Shadows Liked and Disliked About the Hail to the King Album

When asked if he had any regrets about the record, the singer responded, “I think ‘Crimson Day’ is a throwaway. That’s not a great ballad. We’ve had much better ballads. I think we’ve always done pretty good ballads and ‘Crimson Day’ is the lowest on my list of things we’ve ever done.”

He then flipped the subject to reveal his favorite moment, noting, “I also think the coolest thing we’ve ever done on that record is ‘Planets,’ and of course it’s the least listened to. To me, it is the coolest thing on that record.”

As for what that taught him, the singer says, “So me just being able to look at things and I understand that my taste has gone somewhere where it’s just not in line with a mainstream listener, so that’s why I don’t have any sort of expectations moving forward of what I put out is going to be some rah-rah mainstream thing, it’s just not.”

Avenged Sevenfold, “Planets”

About Hail to the King‘s Success

The Hail to the King became Avenged Sevenfold second chart-topping album after the initial No. 1 success of Nightmare. It was their fifth straight album and the most recent album of the band’s to go platinum in the U.S.

As for the “Hail to the King” title track, it topped the Active Rock chart in the U.S., their sixth song at the time to do so. However, it remains their most commercially successful track with the RIAA certifying it as a triple-platinum selling single.

Bradley Hall’s Avenged Sevenfold Deep Dive With M. Shadows