Johnny Christ: New Album “Heavily Influenced” By Brooks Wackerman

Johnny Christ from Avenged Sevenfold talks about the new album and how Brooks Wackerman's drum style influenced the sound of the new album.

Avenged Sevenfold's new album "The Stage" was a surprise to fans and the music industry alike, after dropping an entire album just mere weeks after their first single. This is also the first concept the band has ever released, blending together the making of the cosmos with questions on the role of artificial intelligence in our future. The album is long, unique and gives Avenged Sevenfold fans a whole new side of the band to enjoy.

This is also the band's first album working with Brooks Wackerman. Wackerman was a touring drummer and worked on albums for various bands including Tenacious D, Korn The Vandals and even Avril Lavigne. Wackerman is also known for his work with funk metal Mass Mental and a long-time drummer for punk rockers Bad Religion.

Johnny Christ called into KLAQ this week to talk about secretly dropping their new album, the concept of The Stage, and how working with drummer Brooks Wackerman influenced the sound of the new album:

It was heavily influenced by that to be honest. From the beginning of talking with Brooks before we really even starting putting pen to the paper, we knew that we wanted to let him go. We wanted his raw sound. We knew what he was capable of, his feel and everything. We loved the way that just the natural sounding drums sound. Not a lot of hard rock bands are just letting it be whats there on the mic and everything like that. They're adding a lot of samples on things and effects or whatever. We just wanted the drums to be raw so you could really hear what Brooks Wackerman is capable of.

Check out the entire interview with Johnny Christ above.