Quotes from M. Shadows

The more kids that we can meet or kids that are terminally ill, we try to do it because it's really important, and you can see the hope in their eyes and in their families and their parents.

To me, a lot people really get wrapped up in the technical side of metal and what's metal and what's not and more double-kick and more blast beats and more technicality, but for me, I'm a song person. So I think you can write good songs in any type of style of rock and any type of style of metal, and that's kind of what I'm a fan of.

Every once in a while, we can touch somebody's life in a way just by writing a melody or writing some music, which is always really special.

If we can inspire a kid to pick up a guitar - and less and less kids are doing so these days - it'd be really cool because I know how it felt growing up and how special that was for me.

Someone sent me an article on AI that was written by Tim Urban on the website Wait but Why - that was kind of where I stuck my toes in the puddle, and I said, 'OK, I've gotta learn about this!' I felt like this is one of those things that our generation is going to have to answer for, eventually, and I just wanted to educate myself on it.

If there's something I really like or a chord progression, I write a note in my Blackberry, and maybe a year later, I'll revisit it and ask, 'What did I like about that?' I really don't try to think too much about it. I like to be fresh.

We have this yearning to know the answers to the big questions about space and why we're here; we can't evolve fast enough to figure these answers out on our own, but we can do it through artificial intelligence. But there's also some very scary downsides that could come if we don't put the right safety precautions in there.

I want to stay away from trends and do what we want to do musically.

Unless someone physically tries to attack me, I don't care what anyone does.

We do a lot of things that kind of annoy people and our fan base. We try not to get overloaded on it. For us, that means we don't do social media stuff - we have an Avenged Sevenfold social media, but none of the band members have Facebooks or any sort of Twitter.

We really like having songs where we think the arrangement is just as important as the melodies, even though they're typically not.

I just think that a metal band covering a bunch of metal songs is so boring, so 'done before.'

We want metal to be dangerous again. How cool would that be?

The idea of turning an album into a living piece of art and adding new installations is really intriguing. It expands the journey.

I'm glad that we can add something new to the fold that Metallica's not going to bring to the table, and they're going to do what they do.

Metal needs to be exposed to more people, so it's good for rock if there's bigger bands.

It's important to know the ins and outs of the music business, but you can also dive too deeply into it and forget that you're really here to make music.

Musically, I just like when people are knowledgeable about music and they can talk to you about it.

What made 'Dark Side Of The Moon' so great is some of the mystique and where it was coming from and just the authenticity of it.

Those who are not very good at understanding mental health issues are not going to know what other people are going through in depression. You have to kind of put yourself in somebody else's shoes.

A lot of the metal bands that were around when Metallica put out 'The Black Album,' now they're playing clubs, and Metallica is playing stadiums.

I think 'The Stage' is kind of left field.

I've said the Grammys messed up metal because it's not on TV. What I'm saying is when you're in a metal category, it's not televised, and it doesn't move the needle forward for metal artists, and I wish they had more respect for the genre.

The reality is you either step into the future, or you become a dinosaur.