Listen to Avenged Sevenfold cover The Beach Boys

Avenged Sevenfold as the Beach Boys Pet Sounds cover

Avenged Sevenfold have released a cover version of The Beach Boys’ 1966 hit God Only Knows.

This is the latest cover version to come from the Avenged Sevenfold this year, following on from their reworkings of Mr Bungle’s Retrovertigo, Del Shannon’s Runaway and the Mexican folk song Malagueña Salerosa.

Speaking about the God Only Knows cover, Avenged frontman M Shadows says: “Of all these new songs we’ve recorded, this one was the most difficult in terms of figuring out an arrangement.

“Figuring out the middle vocal melodies was also challenging. We wanted to make the song a little darker by adding a flanger and some haunting vocal nuances. The Beach Boys have always been an influence, so it was fun to tackle this one from arguably the best album of all time, Pet Sounds.”

Speaking to Prog magazine earlier this year, M Shadows revealed that Pet Sounds was one of his favourite concept albums of all time, alongside The Wall, Tommy and The Black Parade.

Avenged Sevenfold have just wrapped up a support slot with Metallica across North America, and will be headlining Houston Open Air on September 15.

Their latest album The Stage is out now.

Avenged Sevenfold: City Of Evil choruses “kind of blow”

Avenged Sevenfold: "We belong up there with Metallica"

Founded in 1983, Metal Hammer is the global home of all things heavy. We have breaking news, exclusive interviews with the biggest bands and names in metal, rock, hardcore, grunge and beyond, expert reviews of the lastest releases and unrivalled insider access to metal's most exciting new scenes and movements. No matter what you're into – be it heavy metal, punk, hardcore, grunge, alternative, goth, industrial, djent or the stuff so bizarre it defies classification – you'll find it all here, backed by the best writers in our game.