New Avenged Sevenfold album features music & lyrics written by The Rev

Avenged Sevenfold‘s upcoming album, Life Is But a Dream…, features contributions from the band’s late drummer, The Rev.

As frontman M. Shadows tells Metal Hammer, the song “Mattel” includes a bridge composed by The Rev prior to his death in 2009, while the cut “Beautiful Morning” has lyrics he and guitarist Synyster Gates had written together.

“That’s something him and [Gates] came up with a long time ago: ‘It’s a beautiful morning, it’s a beautiful day, everybody is smiling, in a beautiful way,’” Shadows shares. “That’s when it [the song] gets creepy.”

Shadows adds that he thinks The Rev would be “stoked” about the experimental musical direction of Life is But a Dream… .

“Me and [Gates] know that guy better than anyone,” Shadows says. “He was always the biggest proponent of instigation and trying new things.”

Life Is But a Dream…, the follow-up to 2016’s The Stage, arrives June 2. It includes the lead single “Nobody.”

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