The Stage is the seventh studio album by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold. It is a concept album about artificial intelligence and self-destruction of society. It was released on October 28, 2016 after a live stream event on the band's Facebook page. The Stage is the first Avenged Sevenfold album to feature Brooks Wackerman on drums, who joined the band in late 2014 but wasn't revealed as Arin Ilejay's official replacement until Ilejay's departure in 2015, because the band wanted to find a drummer that would "fit in". The Stage is also the band's first album to be released through Capitol Records. It is also the band's longest studio album at 73 minutes and 35 seconds, thus beating City of Evil by almost a minute. The album also features their longest song to date, "Exist", with a run-time of 15 minutes and 41 seconds. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.