Avenged Sevenfold has 'mixed feelings' over sales decline

"We have mixed feelings right now. We know we could have done a boring lead-up and taken the number one spot. When you do a three-month buildup, you roll pre-orders, singles, etc. into your first week. The way we did it, our numbers are just for one week. Like Kanye: his first week numbers were low compared to what they could have been had he done the traditional release. "We knew [sales drop] could happen, but we felt it was worth the risk. We also take a longer-term view. The average album following a three-month release model typically sees sales drop as much as 80 percent for the second week. We expect some drop-off, too... but we also expect our album sales to continue over a longer period of time. "It's mixed feelings, but I'm very excited to be doing new things. I would be depressed if we had done the old buildup process. That feels very 2009. Right now we have an album that sold less copies in its first week than the last one. And that's okay: you can't break the rules and expect the same result."