''Black Reign '' is an EP by American heavy metal band

Avenged Sevenfold Avenged Sevenfold (abbreviated as A7X) is an American heavy metal band from Huntington Beach, California, formed in 1999. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist M. Shadows, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Zacky Vengeance, ...

, released on September 21, 2018, through

Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (formerly Warner Bros. Records Inc.) is an American record label. A subsidiary of the Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division of the ...

. It is a compilation of all their original songs created for the '' Call of Duty: Black Ops'' series from 2011 to 2018.

Background

In September 2018 it was announced the band would release all previous non-album collaborations with the '' Call of Duty: Black Ops'' video game series in one collected EP, including a brand new single made specifically for '' Black Ops 4'' as well as "Jade Helm", which was previously only available in-game on '' Black Ops III''. On September 23, 2018,

M. Shadows Matthew Charles Sanders (born July 31, 1981), known by his stage name M. Shadows, is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and a founding member of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. In 2017, Shadows was voted third in th ...

took to Avenged Sevenfold's

Reddit Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...

to address the criticism regarding the mixing of "Mad Hatter". He subsequently published a second version to download for free and explained that the song would be replaced on all radio stations and streaming websites.

Musical style

M. Shadows spoke to

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

about the EP saying "We felt that we should go for something bigger, darker and more cerebral" referring to the brand new song "

Mad Hatter The Hatter is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' and its 1871 sequel ''Through the Looking-Glass''. He is very often referred to as the Mad Hatter, though this term was never used by Car ...

". He continued "We have a very deep relationship with the team at

Treyarch Treyarch Corporation ( ; formerly Treyarch Invention LLC) is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it was acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio is known for ...

. We're proud to be part of the family and extremely excited for people to enjoy this next chapter and our contribution to it."

Track listing

Personnel

– lead vocals *

Synyster Gates Brian Elwin Haner Jr. (born July 7, 1981), better known by his stage name Synyster Gates or simply Syn, is an American guitarist, best known for being the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. He ranks No. ...

– lead guitar, backing vocals *Zacky Vengeance – rhythm guitar, backing vocals *Johnny Christ – bass, gang vocals *Arin Ilejay – drums on "Carry On" and "Not Ready to Die" *

Brooks Wackerman Brooks Wackerman (born February 15, 1977) is an American musician. He is the current drummer of heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold, which he joined in 2015. His first album with Avenged Sevenfold was ''The Stage'' (2016). He is most known as t ...

– drums on "Mad Hatter" and "Jade Helm"

References

{{Authority control Avenged Sevenfold albums Heavy metal EPs 2018 EPs