Avenged Sevenfold Unveil New Original Score, “Jade Helm”

Avenged Sevenfold have unveiled a new composition, “Jade Helm,” an instrumental that appears in the Call of Duty: Black Ops III video game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III was released November 6 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Said Avenged Sevenfold in a statement:

“We are proud to announce our involvement in ‘Black Ops 3.’ Treyarch asked us if we would like to create a score to accompany a portion of the multiplayer soundtrack and we gladly accepted. On November 6 you can pick up a copy of the game and check out our instrumental score entitled ‘Jade Helm’ while you play Multiplayer or in your personal bunk inside the Safe House of the Campaign.”

Avenged Sevenfold recently revealed that their new drummer is Brooks Wackerman, formerly of punk icons Bad Religion. Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows revealed the news on Fozzy singer Chris Jericho’s “Talk is Jericho” podcast.

Shadows and Wackerman were this weeks guests on the podcast, where Shadows revealed that Wackerman had been considered for the position since the death of original A7X drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan. Said Shadows: “To be honest, Brooks’ name has always been in the mix. It was one of the names we were throwing around when Jimmy passed away in terms of who was going to step up for ‘Nightmare.’ We felt Mike [Portnoy, ex-Dream Theater drummer] was the right choice and we still feel that way. Mike just destroyed on the record. He was perfect. But at the time, our tour manager brought up Brooks’ name as well. But at the time he was also busy with Bad Religion and it was also… people were going to look at it differently because he was a punk drummer at this point.”

Regarding drummer Arin Iljay, who left Avenged Sevenfold earlier this year, Shadows said, “It just became increasingly difficult to be on the same page, not only touring, but with writing and just where we want to take things. We’re just a bunch of guys who are all over the place and we have a bunch of different influences and we need somebody who can instantly … who can sit there and say, ‘Yeah, I’ve got that influence too or I understand why we’re gonna go here. I understand why we’re going to do that.’

He continued, “It just got to the point where after Mayhem Festival last year, we had just decided to fire on all cylinders the way we want to, we needed to make a change. And we all had our little talk. We said, ‘Listen, we can ride this thing out the way it is right now and we’ll be fine or we can shake the nest a little bit and we want to fire on all cylinders again. We want to be the baddest band on the planet. We want to just dominate onstage. And I came up with the idea that I really want to talk to Brooks and see if there’s any chance and see where he’s at in his life right now.”

Commented Brooks to Jericho: I’ve been a fan of the band for a decade, and when Matt gave me the call last year, I was absolutely thrilled.”

As far as working on a new Avenged Sevenfold album, the follow up to 2013’s ‘Hail to the King,’ Shadows said: The idea of the last record was a very stripped down sound and the idea of the next is a not very stripped down sound.”

Listen to “Jade Helm” below and let us know what you think in the comments.