In a hard fought victory, Orange County band Avenged Sevenfold are taking home the "Hand of Doom" for Best Metal Album of the Year, presented by Razor & Tie, for “The Stage.” It was a tough playing field, but members M. Shadows, guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman all created a lasting work with The Stage.

In an era when music is more easily available to listeners than at any other point in history, Avenged Sevenfold figured, why make fans suffer through the boring release schedule for a new album, and instead just release it into the world? Without warning, last Oct. 28 they did just that, as The Stage was released onto digital distributors and in stores.

The five thrashers saw their music continue to evolve, invoking the highly emotional power of progressive metal into their mastered craft of thrash. It’s one of the band’s most exciting albums, showing their matured take on heavy metal into a multi-faceted beast. And The Stage doesn’t end there. After treating fans to the title track and "God Damn" as singles, the band has been rolling out additional songs for The Stage to turn it into an “evolving” album, keeping it fresh in 2017.

Avenged faced off some of the biggest bands in metal for their victory, including Metallica, Mastodon, Power Trip, Body Count and Code Orange. Congratulations to Avenged Sevenfold on winning Best Metal Album of the Year, presented by Razor & Tie, at the 2017 Loudwire Music Awards.

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