AVENGED SEVENFOLD frontman M. Shadows told The Charlotte Observer in a new interview that he tries to stay on top of technology where the band is concerned, embracing innovative forms of marketing, fan involvement, stage production and ways of selling music that few rock bands employ.

"It's hard to stay relevant," he said.

The singer realized while watching GUNS N' ROSES' reunion performance at Coachella last year how different today's generation of fans is.

"[GUNS N' ROSES is] playing songs that are part of my childhood and it's dead on the barricade," said Shadows, who couldn't recall seeing one rock T-shirt at Coachella this year.

"There's no doubt to where music is going," he said. "The one thing I've seen with rock music in particular is they've been reluctant to change. If you go see a hip-hop show or a Coachella or Lollapalooza, artists are doing new and inventive things. It's a disadvantage to rock if you don't have artists pushing the boundaries or partaking in new ways to promote music."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD will join METALLICA for the latter's "WorldWired" 2017 North American tour. Produced by Live Nation, the trek kicks off May 10 at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland with openers VOLBEAT.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD is touring in support of its seventh album, "The Stage", which was released at the end of October with almost no promotion beforehand.

The surprise release of the disc, which was announced the night it went on sale, earned the lowest sales of an AVENGED album in 11 years. It sold 76,000 copies in its first week, 73,000 of which were physical.