When heavy metal was really big in the ’80s, it was huge, and then it kind of waned down and kind of came back.
The misunderstanding out there is that we are a ‘hard rock’ band or a ‘heavy metal’ band. We’ve only ever been a rock n’ roll band.
You gotta look beyond the mainstream… the mainstream’ll drown you, you know? There’s always a pulse in the underground that I love. And the pulse in the underground is what keeps heavy metal alive.
We’re a rock n’ roll band. We play heavy metal music. And we want to give you a great time. That’s basically how it all boils down.
On our first album, ‘Sounding the Seventh Trumpet,’ we were listening to more obscure heavy metal bands and hardcore bands.
My music has been called heavy metal, but that’s not an accurate description. I’d rather call it articulate rock because it expresses many feelings and emotions.
One of the songs we recorded for ‘The Long Run’ was called ‘You’re Really High, Aren’t You?’ Which never really made it onto a record, but later on, it became ‘Heavy Metal.’ I took that track that wasn’t used, and when I was invited to write a song for that movie, I took that track and recorded that song for that movie.
The same sensations that you get in heavy metal are in horror movies. Heavy metal sounds evil and horror movies are evil, ha ha!
At 15, I started listening to hard rock and heavy metal, but I would say it was more hard rock because I liked Kiss, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, and eventually AC/DC.
All that stuff about heavy metal and hard rock, I don’t subscribe to any of that. It’s all just music. I mean, the heavy metal from the ’70s sounds nothing like the stuff from the ’80s, and that sounds nothing like the stuff from the ’90s. Who’s to say what is and isn’t a certain type of music?
I’m doing a pilot for Comedy Central with the band Steel Panther. They’re faux heavy metal. They started as kind of a tribute band out here, or a cover band, and they’re funny guys, and they just sort of morphed into their own thing.
I think its disgraceful to align that first Led Zeppelin record with heavy metal because its far, far better, but you know what Im saying: It started that genre.
Why would heavy metal ever go away?
Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away.
We did some shows – Soulfly played for the Marines twice and it was great meeting those guys. A lot of them are heavy metal fans and go to war areas like Iraq and Afghanistan and listen to their metal. I’m glad that my music has somehow helped them get through that at least a little bit.
‘Waking the Fallen’ truly encompasses everything that Avenged Sevenfold was at that time. It was us being fearless, us showing our roots in heavy metal, punk, rock n’ roll, and not being afraid to try everything under the sun when it comes to writing music.
Strapping Young Lad is a vehicle for me to be wild and extroverted and ridiculous. It gives me the chance to say, ‘Look at me. I’m a heavy metal guy. I’m Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson or whoever.’
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