Avenged Sevenfold Becomes a Fully Independent Band

Recovery of the Rights to "The Stage"

After a 26-year career, the band has officially announced that they are now "a fully independent band." This announcement comes after completing their agreement with the Warner record label with the release of the album "Life Is But A Dream…" in June 2023. As part of this new status, the group has secured the rights to their 2016 LP, "The Stage," which was originally released through Capitol Records. On Tuesday, May 19, the band posted a statement on their social media accounts detailing the buyback of their material:

"We are thrilled to announce that we have bought back the master recordings and rights to 'The Stage,' 'The Stage (Deluxe Edition)' and 'Live At The Grammy Museum' from Capitol Records. We want to bring your attention to this because you may need to re-add them to your playlists if they aren't showing up on your streaming services. Also, our Deluxe Edition now includes our 4-song 'Live From Capitol Records Rooftop' performance." — Avenged Sevenfold

The band emphasized that "The Stage" is now part of their independence, recalling that it is an album that in 2016 tackled themes such as artificial intelligence, political and social criticism, simulation theory, and existentialism. The group also noted that they are aware the album's 10th anniversary is approaching and that, for the time being, they will activate double streaming points for Deathbat Rewards users during the week.

Future Plans for Music Production

In an April 2023 interview with Overpriced JPEGs, the band's frontman, M. Shadows (whose real name is Matt Sanders), discussed plans to release new music after concluding their contract with Warner. When asked if they would follow the independent route, the vocalist explained that the priority is to maintain total control over their work.

"Imagine writing like a bullet-point list of things we're not willing to budge on, and then we'll do it… We want to make music when we want, release it, we want to surprise-drop stuff if we want, we want to do this and that. Sometimes artists sign to a label but it's a distribution deal where the label gets eight to 10 percent and then they distribute the record. They might even pay for the record to be made, but the band handles the other stuff. So there are many ways to slice this pie. We just know what we're not willing to do. And what we're not willing to do is just sign the same type of thing we have right now. Now, if the next record says Warner Brothers or Universal, it doesn't mean we re-signed to a label; it means maybe we're using them for distribution, maybe we're doing a licensing deal." — M. Shadows

The singer added that they could even establish direct relationships with streaming services. However, he qualified that they must balance how much work they want to take on their own, such as paying publicists and radio staff, against the benefits of a record label deal.

Legal History and the "Seven-Year Rule" Conflict

The relationship between AVENGED SEVENFOLD and Warner Bros. was marked by a legal dispute that began in late 2015. The band left the label, citing the "seven-year rule" of the California Labor Code, which allows for the termination of contracts after seven years under certain unfavorable conditions. Following their departure, the group joined Capitol to surprise-release "The Stage." On "The Bob Lefsetz Podcast" in April 2022, M. Shadows explained the process of returning to Warner to finalize their contract:

"There's a lot that goes into that. We applied the old seven-year clause that we were trying to get out of our deal with, but the reality is that we wanted our masters back — we wanted to make some sort of deal and be able to own our recordings, or possibly re-sign and get a check, all the things you can do. And then we started thinking about the seven-year clause and really wanted to see if we could help artists in some way. The people we had an issue with at Warner Brothers, who just weren't committed to the band, were gone, and some new people came in who flew out, and we basically broke bread and said: this record we made with Capitol Records, go back to Warner Brothers, finish your deal, and we'll handle it from there." — M. Shadows

During the litigation, Warner Bros. sought damages, arguing that the band still owed them one more album. Had they lost the case, AVENGED SEVENFOLD would have faced a verdict of between $5 million and $10 million, in addition to legal fees that by 2018 exceeded $1.5 million.

The Commercial Impact of "The Stage"

"The Stage" debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 chart in November 2016. The surprise release resulted in the lowest sales for a band album in eleven years, selling 76,000 copies in its first week—less than half of what was achieved by their two previous efforts. M. Shadows previously commented to The Pulse Of Radio that they were aware of the risks involved with this release format:

"One thing we knew, you know, all the analytics showed that, you know, we shouldn't do this because of the way rock fans consume music. You know, it's very physical-heavy, and one thing we knew is that we had to get records into stores, but we would basically be exposing ourselves to a leak, which would have been a total disaster. But Capitol Records did an incredible job of being able to get these records into stores, so we were able to be the first band to have a physical and digital release that was a surprise." — M. Shadows

The vocalist noted that the previous dissatisfaction with Warner arose after the release of "Hail To The King" in 2014, when they felt a lack of support from the label's staff, which prompted their brief stint with Capitol before returning to fulfill their final contractual obligations.