Avenged Sevenfold have been all about surprises with their latest album, The Stage. First, they teased the world with an intricate campaign before announcing a special virtual reality performance event, where they later revealed that the new album had now been released. The surprises keep coming as the band has continued to release cover selections as part of their "evolving album" concept with their take on the Rolling Stones' "As Tears Go By" being the freshest addition.

The 1965 Rolling Stones track from their December's Children (And Everybody's) album is rooted in psychedelia and whimsical acoustic guitar playing and A7X thrust the song into the modern day. The acoustic strumming in the beginning is noticeably more aggressive as M. Shadows lets out an impassioned, "Ooh yeah!" before the verse hits. The song has a warm production and a laid back vibe with guitarist Synyster Gates complementing Shadows on backing vocals. Avenged are known pranksters and there's one toward the end of the video where Johnny Christ gets doused in water!

“We really got into some of the deeper Rolling Stones tracks during the writing process for Hail To The King,” commented Shadows. “This song always stood out because of the melody and fragile state of Mick Jagger’s vocal and the interesting string section in the bridge. We took a more uptempo rock 'n' roll approach and added the sitar as a little nod to the experimentation of the '60s.”

It's been a peculiar string of covers from A7X, having already issued covers of the Mexican folk song "Malagueña Salerosa," Mr. Bungle's "Retrovertigo," Del Shannon's "Runaway" which featured Zacky Vengeance on lead vocals and The Beach Boys' "God Only Knows."

Avenged Sevenfold have been nominated for Metal Artist of the Year, Metal Album of the Year and Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance have been nominated for Best Guitarist(s) in the 2017 Loudwire Music Awards. Voting is open now at this location and the winners will be announced live on Oct. 24 at the 2017 Loudwire Music Awards ceremony and concert, hosted by WWE superstar and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho. The event will honor Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi, Judas Priest's Rob Halford and Van Halen legend Sammy Hagar and feature performances from Anthrax, Halestorm, Body Count, Nothing More, Starset, Power Trip and more. Get your tickets and more information here.

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