Avenged Sevenfold vocalist M. Shadows has defended his decision to share a video message last week welcoming back two Israeli fans of the band who were recently released from roughly two years in captivity. That pair, Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, were kidnapped by Hamas on October 07th, 2023 at the Nova Music Festival. They were held by Hamas in Gaza since and were returned home earlier this month as part of the tentative peace deal in the Israel Gaza war championed by current U.S. President Donald Trump.
As shared on social media, the childhood friends actually listened to the music of Avenged Sevenfold in the hospital together after being released. Guy‘s stunned reaction to seeing the recorded video from Shadows personally welcoming the pair back home after their horrific ordeal was also filmed and posted online.
With the conflict in Gaza remaining a divisive issue however, Shadows has faced backlash for his gesture towards the aforementioned duo. That uproar seems centered around his video being perceived as being supportive of Israeli-based actions in the war. Given the accusations of genocide against Palestinian peoples that have been lodged against Israel in that war, discussion remains heated.
Speaking on the negativity and criticisms he has received for making that video, Shadows told Rolling Stone:
“It’s not something that I’m going to worry about; I know that it’s the right thing to do. I think you have to stick to your moral compass, but I’ve definitely heard it from both sides. To me, that video is just a human doing something for another human. It’s not making a political stance. It’s not sticking it in someone’s eye. It really is about two human beings that have been through hell. And if we can’t agree on that, it’s really hard to agree on anything.”
He later added:
“You know the hammer’s going to come down from the other side. But if you worry about that, then you’re just going to live your life scared and … in an untruthful sort of place. We’ve done things for a lot of different people across different cultures and different religions. And at the end of the day, if they’re fans, we really want to reach out and we want to support them in some sort of way. And so it just seems unfair — [this idea that] ‘if you’re not on my side, then you’re an enemy.’ It’s really kind of gross.”
Avenged Sevenfold themselves also experienced a direct connection to the impact of the conflict, as Shadows recalled:
“On October 7th, two cousins who we hung out with when we played in Israel, were, you know, murdered. So the whole thing hit home hard. Again, it wasn’t anything political. It was two girls that we know — sweet, innocent people. Terrible things happened to them and they didn’t make it out. I made a post then that was very neutral — just our hearts are broken and this happened. I mean .… words seem so cheap, right?”
Shadows later went on to say the following of his video greeting, which appears to have been coordinated by a group of fans of the band in Israel:
“If I just got released after two years, the last thing I would care about is a video from a singer of a band [laughs.] But I was like, if you think it would help, of course I’ll do it. We know they care deeply about our band, and we wanted to do anything we could to give them some sort of reprieve, some sort of a relief, or some sort of joy. So that’s really what it all came down to.”
Speaking further with Rolling Stone, Shadows relayed that he has respect for Disturbed vocalist David Draiman, whose outspoken support for Israel in the above-mentioned conflict, which included signing an IDF artillery shell, has continued to court controversy. While Avenged Sevenfold themselves have tackled the topic of war in their songs, Shadows relayed that the band aren’t “militant.”
“The songs we had about war around 2005 and 2006, a lot of it had to do with our friends going off to Iraq, being some of the first people into Fallujah. We’ve played Iraq, Kuwait, and further over into Abu Dhabi. Our whole thing is that we’re not some militant band that has this line in the sand. We want to play music for every human that wants to come to our shows.”
Regarding Draiman, Shadows added, “I really respect David, not just for where he stands, but that he believes in something and he’s full-force into it.” However, Shadows went on to affirm that his actions with the video come from a humanitarian standpoint.
“There’s a lot of people that fall on both sides of this thing. I heard from Jewish people in the music community, and from a lot of fans in Indonesia and Malaysia, places where we do well that are much more Muslim-dominant, who are extremely disappointed that we would make a video for Israeli prisoners. This was just a humanist approach — these people have been through a lot.”
Shadows went on to mention that he has yet to personally be in contact with the two freed hostages, stating: “I’ve not heard from them yet, but I’m sure we will play over there and do something for them.”
