SenaUW

Hey Matt! Thank you for taking your time once again for a proper Reddit AMA. Without losing time, let's go to our questions:

1. The reception for The Stage, as well as its evolved counterpart, has been phenomenal so far. If you had a chance to change anything about this cycle - be it production, promotion, tour, etc. - would you do it?

2. In last October, you performed an intimate set at the GRAMMY Museum® and released a digital-only album/EP out of it. You also started publishing video footage of said set, but stopped at 3 out of 5 tracks, with "Exist" and "So Far Away" going unreleased. Can we expect getting these two in the future at all?

3. During this last tour you rotated "Chapter Four" and "Burn It Down" in a sort of 'medium cut slot', with "Second Heartbeat" serving as a rare third option. What was your impression of the crowd's reaction during these songs? I'd personally love to hear more of that stuff (and many others share this wish), but the audience's energy seems to be a big enough deal for you to axe underwhelming tracks.

4. What lessons did you take from your time with Metallica?

5. Speaking of Metallica, I remember reading a story about how the band once tuned in a radio station, heard "The Frayed Ends of Sanity" and was shocked thinking that it was some really crazy stuff. Do you react like that when hearing some of your old stuff?

6. This one is about the band's vault. How likely would it be for us to be able to hear unreleased material (demos, live audio, instrumentals, etc.) from WBR-era Avenged? I imagine the label could be an obstacle due to your not so friendly relationship as of late, but some fans would do anything to get their hands on some rare stuff.

7. Getting a bit deeper in the vault, hopefully you'll know what I'm talking about. You recorded Sounding the Seventh Trumpet in November 2000 and went back to the studio in February 2001, this time accompained by Synyster Gates, to rerecord "To End the Rapture" and "Warmness on the Soul" for use on your debut single/EP. The original "To End the Rapture" was released on Goodlife's STST, but do you know what happened to the original "Warmness on the Soul" which went unreleased?

8. To wrap this up, have you ever gotten so tired of performing a certain song that you considered retiring it for a while? You've been playing the likes of "Unholy Confessions" and "Bat Country" for over an almost uninterrupted decade, so I'm curious about this.

Again, thanks a lot for this AMA session, we really appreciate it. And by the way, congrats for your GRAMMY nomination! We sure would've loved to see you win it, but things don't always work like we hope. There's always a next album though, and you'll hopefully get beyond the nomination then. Peace out!

Thanks a lot Matt! Interesting to see that you find some of the City of Evil material not ideally structured, when that's like one of the strongest points people point towards when praising the likes of "Sidewinder" and "The Wicked End". Shows that a lot goes into passion and soul. Also looking forward for pro-shot footage of the upcoming tour!

Gotta make the most of the rare chances of getting our questions answered by the boys themselves.