“I’m a bit of a troublemaker,” says Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows. The self-described atheist is referencing the reaction to a video message he recorded for Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, welcoming the two men home after two years in captivity. Gilboa-Dalal, who was 22 when kidnapped by terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023, is a diehard fan of the band, noting after his return that their music carried him through some difficult days in Gaza, where a war against Hamas played out overhead as darkness and isolation threatened below — potentially ending his life at any moment.
Shadows’ message — “So excited to hear you are home. The things you guys have been through are unspeakable, terrible,” said the Huntington Beach, Calif. native — was not political in nature and intended for a viewing audience of two. But once released into the world (with the band’s permission), it drew scrutiny.
“It’s not something that I’m going to worry about; I know that it’s the right thing to do,” says Shadows. “I think you have to stick to your moral compass, but I’ve definitely heard it from both sides. To me, that video is just a human doing something for another human. It’s not making a political stance. It’s not sticking it in someone’s eye. It really is about two human beings that have been through hell. And if we can’t agree on that, it’s really hard to agree on anything.”
Shadows is acutely aware of the division among A7X fans, and the greater public, when it comes to, what he calls, “this particular subject.” “You know the hammer’s going to come down from the other side. But if you worry about that, then you’re just going to live your life scared and … in an untruthful sort of place. We’ve done things for a lot of different people across different cultures and different religions. And at the end of the day, if they’re fans, we really want to reach out and we want to support them in some sort of way. And so it just seems unfair — [this idea that] ‘if you’re not on my side, then you’re an enemy.’ It’s really kind of gross.”
Avenged Sevenfold has a robust following in Israel and the band has performed there in the past. But Shadows says his connection to the country goes deeper. “On October 7th, two cousins who we hung out with when we played in Israel, were, you know, murdered. So the whole thing hit home hard,” he says. “Again, it wasn’t anything political. It was two girls that we know — sweet, innocent people. Terrible things happened to them and they didn’t make it out. I made a post then that was very neutral — just our hearts are broken and this happened. I mean .… words seem so cheap, right?”
As popular as Avenged Sevenfold are in the metal world, having toured globally, released eight studio albums and amassed a social following of many millions — including more than 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify — Shadows views his video for the hostages quite modestly. “If I just got released after two years, the last thing I would care about is a video from a singer of a band,” he says with a laugh. “But I was like, if you think it would help, of course I’ll do it. We know they care deeply about our band, and we wanted to do anything we could to give them some sort of reprieve, some sort of a relief, or some sort of joy. So that’s really what it all came down to.”
Shadows has experience in the Middle East that far predates the current conflict. As the band was coming up — they signed with Warner Bros. Records in 2004 and are now fully independent for the first time in 20 years — they performed several shows for U.S. service members deployed during the Gulf War. Their songs have also featured themes of faith, conflict, and country.
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“The songs we had about war around 2005 and 2006, a lot of it had to do with our friends going off to Iraq, being some of the first people into Fallujah,” says Shadows, noting, “We’ve played Iraq, Kuwait, and further over into Abu Dhabi. Our whole thing is that we’re not some militant band that has this line in the sand. We want to play music for every human that wants to come to our shows.”
To that end, Shadows empathizes with Disturbed frontman David Draiman, who is feeling the heat for his public support of Israel, which resulted in the cancelation of a concert in Belgium. “I really respect David, not just for where he stands, but that he believes in something and he’s full-force into it,” says Shadows.
Which brings the conversation back around to the matter at hand. “Being from California, you have these discussions at the dinner table, or you read op-eds, and you form these opinions,” says Shadows, whose band notably addressed their prior use of a Confederate flag in their imagery in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. “There’s a lot of people that fall on both sides of this thing. I heard from Jewish people in the music community, and from a lot of fans in Indonesia and Malaysia, places where we do well that are much more Muslim-dominant, who are extremely disappointed that we would make a video for Israeli prisoners. This was just a humanist approach — these people have been through a lot.”
As Avenged Sevenfold looks forward, Shadows is experiencing his own kind of liberation as an independent artist. “It’s going to be back to those DIY ethics, that bands had to do to break in the first place, because there is no clear-cut way to get traction anymore,” he says of the major label system. “Record labels have an extremely hard time right now breaking new artists, and gaining momentum in the marketplace which is so driven by TikTok, and memes, and quick fixes.” The economics, he adds, don’t make sense for a band like Avenged Sevenfold today. “I find it extremely liberating, because it’s kind of a fair system now,” he says. “It’s just about the work you put in, the songs you write, and getting out there and in front of people. That’s my glossed-over, super-optimistic look on it.”
You could apply the same positivity to Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal. “I’ve not heard from them yet,” says Shadow. “But I’m sure we will play over there and do something for them.”
From Rolling Stone US
