Rockfreaks.net

Avenged Sevenfold have recruited Brooks Wackerman, who left Bad Religion recently, as their new drummer. Frontman M. Shadows said of the choice:

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] 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.

Writing has commenced for the band's next album, and in Chris Jericho's "Talk is Jericho" podcast, Shadows insinuated that it will not follow the stripped down sound heard on "Hail to the King".