MTV Hive and Loudwire have compiled lists of their most anticipated albums of 2013 with Avenged Sevenfold appearing on both.

MTV HIVE
3. Avenged Sevenfold, TBA
In a recent interview with Revolver, Avenged Sevenfold frontman M. Shadows said he’d been schooling the group’s drummer, Arin Ilejay — who will make his full-length debut with the band on their forthcoming LP — on their most important influences: Pantera, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and so on. “Right now, we’re handing him [Pantera's] Far Beyond Driven and [Metallica's] Master of Puppets and saying, ‘Learn these albums…’ because when we’re talking about ‘groove metal,’ we’re not talking about some Warped Tour band,” he said. “We’re talking about fucking Pantera. We’re talking about Black Sabbath, you know?” For a band whose last album, 2010′s Nightmare, had the sort of hooks and epic-length songs that their inspirations in Metallica pioneered in the ’90s, the bar is already pretty high. Until the new album comes out, we have the song they wrote for the latest Call of Duty to tide us over.

LOUDWIRE
3. Avenged Sevenfold
Over the past decade, Avenged Sevenfold have become one of the biggest hard rock bands on the planet, and it sounds as if the band is aiming high for their next album. Singer M. Shadows recently told Metal Hammer that the disc has a Black Sabbath / Led Zeppelin vibe and that the album will take the band to a “whole new level.” The band is planning to head into the studio in late January or early February and release the new album in the summer of 2013.