Hear Avenged Sevenfold Cover The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows"
First came their rendition of Mexican folk song “Malagueña Salerosa,” followed by a re-imagining of Mr. Bungle’s “Retrovertigo,” an original track (“Dose”) and a cover of Del Shannon’s 1961 hit, “Runaway.”
Now Avenged Sevenfold continue the expansion of new their latest album, The Stage, with their version of the Beach Boys’ 1966 hit, “God Only Knows.”
“Of all these new songs we’ve recorded, this one was the most difficult in terms of figuring out an arrangement,” says vocalist M. Shadows. “Figuring out the middle vocal melodies was also challenging. We wanted to make the song a little darker by adding a flanger and some haunting vocal nuances. The Beach Boys have always been an influence, so it was fun to tackle this one from arguably the best album of all time, Pet Sounds.”
The Stage is the band’s seventh studio album and first for Capitol Records. Co-produced by A7X and Barresi, it is a work of immense scope and ambition, featuring 11 panoramic tracks tied together by an Artificial Intelligence theme. Inspired by the writings of Carl Sagan and Elon Musk, the album is the band’s first thematic release. Its epic 15-minute-plus closing track, “Exist,” features a guest appearance by award-winning astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson giving a spoken-word performance he penned specifically for the album.
Guitar World, which spotlighted Gates and Zacky Vengeance with a cover story, lauded the disc for being “the most surprising and ambitious album of their career.”
The band recently announced they’re transforming the album into an evolving body of work by adding a series of new tracks over the course of the coming months. This version of “God Only Knows” is one of those tracks.
Avenged Sevenfold (vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman) just wrapped a stadium summer run with Metallica as well as on their own series of special headline shows. Next up is their headlining slot at the Houston Open Air festival September 15.
Source: www.guitarworld.com
