Earlier this week, Machine Head frontman Robb Flynn slammed Avenged Sevenfold and their new album 'Hail to the King.' Calling 'Hail to the King' a "covers album," Flynn channeled his inner David Letterman to construct a Top 10 list of jokes about Avenged Sevenfold's latest record, in the process accusing A7X of "blatant jackery" of Metallica, Megadeth and Guns N' Roses songs. Having seen the list, Avenged vocalist M. Shadows has offered a retort in Flynn's direction.

Interestingly enough, it was Fozzy singer / WWE wrestler Chris Jericho who made Shadows aware of Flynn's post. "He's [Jericho] like, 'Dude, look at this B.S.,'" Shadows tells Canadian radio station 106.9 The Bear. "[He was] going crazy. And I was like, 'Ah Chris, I love you.'"

Shadows continues, "But I read it, and I read it as a joke. I have met Robb on numerous occasions and he's always been cool to me. And I just read it as a joke. I really don't know what to say about it other than I agree with him on the [Metallica] 'Sad But True' thing — that was obviously an inspiration for that song. Everything else, I kind of think he… If it is a joke, it was kind of overboard, 'cause it doesn't make sense in my mind. But at the same time, he was saying it was a joke, so … I have no ill will towards those guys."

Shadows continues, "I've met [Machine Head guitarist] Phil [Demmel] a couple of times; he's cool. Robb is cool. And I think the guy has the right to go make… if it's really a joke, in his mind... Some people might see it as being as an underhanded… joke. But, to me, if he just wants to go in there and write whatever he wants, I think that's totally cool. Everyone has an opinion and everyone should be entitled to say whatever they want. So it's no skin off our backs. I think all the bands he [mentioned] we were very inspired by. I think also Sabbath, Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones."

The singer concludes, "I think when you take a record like this and the way metal has become very blast-beat, screamy-oriented, when you kind of take things back and go to a more classic-rock feel, you're gonna feel the similarities to what we were trying to do; we were trying to make an Avenged Sevenfold album from the early '90s and late '80s. It was just something that really intrigued us and interested us. And so, for me, I think all those bands have always been an influence — you can hear that on 'City Of Evil'. And Metallica has, obviously, influenced every single band that picked up a guitar and plays metal. So, yeah, all those bands, plus all the old greats."

Avenged Sevenfold's 'Hail to the King' debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart, selling 159,000 copies in its first week.

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