Life Is But A Dream…<\/em><\/a> in June 2023, and seemingly continues that album’s fondness for wild experimentation.<\/p>\nLife Is But A Dream… <\/em>was extremely divisive with fans, with many appalled by the band’s dive into off-the-wall dabbles with prog, jazz, funk and pop, and others blown away by the Orange County crew’s boldness and vision (including this writer, who gave the record a 9\/10 for Classic Rock<\/em> that I absolutely stand by – Life Is But A Dream…<\/em> still slaps hard!).<\/p>\nSpeaking to Metal Hammer <\/em>that year, Avenged acknowledged that their new material would bemuse plenty of people, seemingly buoyed by the fact.<\/p>\n\u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018That is fucking shit! These guys forgot how to write a song! Why would you put a solo at the end?\u2019\u201d remarked frontman M. Shadows. \u201cWe were just laughing. That was more fun to us than someone saying, \u2018Oh, this is great.\u2019 We always gear towards a little bit of ruffling feathers.\u201d<\/p>\n