Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows has said in a new interview with Billboard that the band is already looking ahead to making its eighth studio album, although he cautioned that it’s very early in the process: “There’s no new songs. We’ll probably talk for a couple months before we even start writing. There’s just so many cool new influences and even just the idea of sparking us to think of different things outside of the box, I just know it’s going to be different and cool. A lot of times it’s just hard to find inspiration, but once you find inspiration, it’s usually a lot easier process.”

• The band issued its most recent LP, The Stage, in October 2016, although Shadows admitted that they may not want to “drag (The Stage) out too much longer.”
• A deluxe edition of The Stage arrives this Friday (December 22nd). It features seven additional studio songs plus four previously unreleased live tracks recorded during recent shows at the O2 Arena in London.
• Avenged Sevenfold recently confirmed the details of an early 2018 North American headlining tour with Breaking Benjamin and Bullet For My Valentine. The trek will begin on January 12th in Nashville with shows booked so far through February 11th in Fargo, North Dakota.
• Shadows also hinted at the group going out on a “really big summer tour” next year, although he did not provide any more details. He suggested that Avenged could enter the studio after that trek concludes.