Avenged Sevenfold's new album Life Is But A Dream...is pretty out there, to say the least. With its mind-expanding, sprawling passages of cosmic prog derived from the band's dabbling's in psychedelic substances, it's by far their most experimental release yet, and one of the standout albums of 2023.
Apparently, the band actually planned for it to be even weirder, and at one point, were in talks with pop/soul/R&B legend Lionel Richie to guest on the album.
The planned collaboration was revealed last week when A7X frontman M Shadows discussed the new record in conversation with metal content creator Nik Nocturnal.
As Shadows explains, the metallers had wanted to recruit Richie to sing a part on the song Beautiful Morning, a segment of which now features two female guest vocalist instead.
"We were talking to Lionel Richie about doing the vocal part there", he notes, before revealing how Richie's busy schedule as a judge on American Idol got in the way of the unlikely crossover.
"At the end of the day, he got too busy with America's Got Talent or whatever. But he was gonna sing that [section], 'It's a beautiful morning / It's a beautiful day.'"
Well, as disappointing as Lionel Richie's absence on Life Is But A Dream...is, there's certainly more than enough weird and wonderful moments elsewhere on the record to feast on, with tracks influenced by a wide array of artists including Daft Punk, Elton John, Pink Floyd and Kanye West.
Listen to the full interview below, and to find out more about Avenged's new album, you can do so in the new issue of Metal Hammer. Order the magazine here.
