Avenged Sevenfold’s 2016’s prog-metal masterpiece The Stage might have been a left turn, but nothing could’ve prepared us for its follow-up, Life Is But ADream…Landing in June, their eighth album combined hip hop, classic rock, EDM, thrash metal, classic soul and more, with some hailing it as a masterwork and others condemning it as career suicide. Like all the finest art, it was hated and adored –but never ignored. We spoke to guitarist Synyster Gates about what it was like being in the eye of the storm.
