Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Zacky Vengeance has explained how he and his bandmates “fell in love” with St Anger, arguably the most divisive album in Metallica’s back-catalogue.
In a new interview with radio station WRIF, the 44-year-old, who co-founded his California metal band in 1999, says that while the 2003 effort isn’t his favourite Metallica album, he at least came to respect it for trying new things, especially its incredibly raw style of production.
“We were driving across the country playing small shows, and it was right at the time when St Anger came out,” Vengeance remembers (via Blabbermouth). “With St Anger, it was like, ‘What are they doing?’ It was the craziest-sounding [album]. And then we fell in love with it.”
He continues: “It might not be our favourite Metallica album, but the thought behind it and the fact that it was so different and it had to be listened to, and they were just going for this thrashy raw sound using tones that weren’t perfect, studio, modern-day drum samples, which they’re fully able to accomplish, if they want – they can do whatever they want – they chose to go and just make this buck-wild album.”
He adds that the album was inspiring because it made Avenged think, “If Metallica can do that, then we can do that.” The band started as part of the Orange County metalcore scene in the early 2000s before embracing a more traditional hard rock/heavy metal sound in the vein of Metallica’s self-titled 1991 chart-topper and Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction. They later went more avant-garde with the surprise-released concept album The Stage (2016) and its genre-breaking follow-up Life Is But A Dream… (2023).
St Anger came out on June 5, 2003, and was famously met with mixed reviews, as well as intense fan backlash, with many detractors singling out the stripped-back sound, lengthy song structures and lack of guitar solos. The production was troubled, as it saw the band endure the departure of longtime bassist Jason Newsted and singer/guitarist James Hetfield’s admittance into rehab. The band have defended the record in the years since, with Hetfield calling it “the album that did not get the chance” onstage in 2022.
As much as Avenged love St Anger, though, Vengeance admits that they’re still getting there with Lulu: another extremely controversial entry in Metallica’s canon, made in collaboration with renowned singer/songwriter Lou Reed in 2011.
“It’s still taking me a little bit longer to get into Lulu,” he says, “but I love Lou Reed, so knowing that those guys are inspired by off-the-wall artists kind of caught me for a loop because they are such the epitome of a metal band. And then it’s like, ‘Whoa. They stepped that far out of the box.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, these guys just love music. These guys are just fans of music.’ And that’s probably why they’re so good at what they do, which is kind of cool.”
Last month, Vengeance – under his birth name of Zachary Baker – announced his debut solo album, Dark Horse. A far cry from the metal that earned the guitarist his following so far, it’s going to be a dark country release, set to drop on April 3. The singles Dark Horse and Lighthouse are out now.
Avenged will return to the road in the summer, touring North America with pop-punks Good Charlotte. In September, they’ll play Rock In Rio in Brazil. See all dates and get tickets via their website.
Last December, Avenged released their first piece of new music since Life Is But A Dream…, the standalone single Magic. Whether it’s the first taste of a new album remains to be seen, and it’s unknown whether they’re currently writing more material.
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