Avenged Sevenfold Have Two More Albums Reach Platinum Sales Status
Though fans are patiently waiting for their next album, it's been a pretty good year for Avenged Sevenfold's back catalog as two more albums have reached platinum status in the U.S., according to the RIAA. The freshly minted works are 2010's Nightmare album and the 2013 follow-up record "Hail to the King."
For Nightmare, this was the next step after previously reaching gold certification on Jan. 19, 2011 for 500,000 copies sold. A platinum record signifies that they've surpassed the million mark.
The Nightmare album was a key one in the band's career as drummer The Rev, who had been a driving creative force for the record, died in 2009 before the set was completed. One of The Rev's drum heroes, Mike Portnoy, stepped in to help finish the creative vision. The album yielded the singles "Nightmare," "Welcome to the Family" and "So Far Away."
As for Hail to the King, it previously reached gold status on July 16, 2014. The band's sixth studio album, produced by Mike Elizondo, featured Arin Ilejay on drums and was the musician's only recorded album with the group. It included the title track, "Shepherd of Fire" and "This Means War" as the big singles.
Just last month, Avenged Sevenfold set two more sales marks as their 2003 Waking the Fallen album reached platinum status while the song "Unholy Confessions" off that album was certified by the RIAA as a gold single.
As for new Avenged Sevenfold music, that may still be a while off. Though M. Shadows revealed at the end of February that the band had about "70 percent" of the record complete, he reiterated, "It doesn't make sense for us right now to put out a record and not be able to tour it," later adding, "So we're going to wait till everything is back, then we'll come out with the record, finish it up, and all will be good."