The summer didn't go as planned for Avenged Sevenfold, but that just meant a new plan fell into place. During a recent chat with Loudwire Nights host Toni Gonzalez, Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates revealed that the group is in the early stages of writing for their next album.

“We’re definitely working on stuff and I’m really excited about the stuff that we’re working on," revealed Gates. "We’re not full, in the throes, shoulder to shoulder writing music yet but we’re exchanging ideas and hanging and we’re very much interested … in the brainstorming aspect, the meeting of the minds kind of thing that we do before we write a record."

The guitarist continued, "We all come together and philosophize and pontificate to each other and just kind of say, ‘Hey, I want it to sound like this. What do you want it to sound like?’ The coolest thing is, we are such on the same page like never before. Our best records and my favorites and certainly the most successful have been where we’re all on the same page. So I’m excited about it. We don’t have much to show for it yet. It’s still early on, but we’re working on a bunch of stuff.”

In our recent e-mail interview with M. Shadows, the vocalist revealed that he had just been cleared to start work on his vocal recovery, having spent most of the summer of vocal rest. "I did two months of no talking or singing and now I need to build it all back up. No damage was done so I'm grateful for that," revealed Shadows, adding, "I could probably start singing very soon but I’m going to take this recovery slow just to make sure everything is as strong as it can be. I'll be ready to roll for the next record."

In the interim, Avenged Sevenfold have released the new song "Mad Hatter" tied to the upcoming Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 video game. In addition, all four of their Call of Duty song contributions have been compiled and released on the new EP, Black Reign, which just came out last week. The Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 game is due Oct. 21.

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