AVENGED CONQUER THE WORLD (September 2013)

Hail To The King nabbed the No.1 spot on both sides of the Atlantic, earning metal a rare global victory

Hail To The King topping charts in the US and UK wasn’t just a victory for Avenged Sevenfold; it was a sign that 21st-century metal bands were still capable of smashing into the mainstream and disrupting pop music’s status quo.

Do you remember finding out that Hail To The King had gone to No.1 in both the US and UK?

Zacky Vengeance: “It was a whirlwind! There’s really no other way to put it. We’d been working on the album for a long time, being in the studio, trying to figure out how to promote it… it was really stressful!”

When was your first inkling that it had a real chance to reach those heights?

“We had the record label sending us email projections like, ‘If you sell this many this week…’ or, ‘The stores have ordered this many, but you’re up against these guys...’ Nightmare had hit No.1

[in the US] which meant that Jimmy got his No.1. But when I found out that Hail To The King went No.1 in the UK, I was thrilled. I mean, that’s huge! Us hitting No.1 in the UK was like a huge middle finger to the entire world.”

Did you guys celebrate?

“I don’t think we celebrated as much as we should have. It would have been awesome to be in the club, popping champagne bottles and celebrating, but we had already hit the ground running and so we didn’t have a chance!”