Even though it’s been two years since their last album, this was a pretty big week for Avenged Sevenfold. The video game they contributed a track to, (and appeared in), Call of Duty: Black Ops II, sold over $500 million in its first 24 hours alone. That’s a hell of a lot of exposure for the band, arguably more than just about any band has gotten in the past week. And in a recent interview with The Pulse of Radio, M. Shadows says that the band’s progressing nicely on their next album.

“I try not to say too much about the album because you know how the Internet world is, so I’ll just say this: we have a direction, we’re sticking to that direction, and we feel really very happy writing in these terms that we’ve laid out for ourselves,” he said. “The album is coming along very nicely, we’re excited to get in the studio, we have about six songs that I’m really happy with right now, and we’re continuing to write every single day.”

The new album will allegedly be out in June or July of next year, and it appears that the band would be on track for another #1 record. Their last one, Nightmare, sold 163,000 in its first week and debuted at #1. The exposure they’re getting from Call of Duty will likely help out sales. This will be the first album written without any contributions from Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, who died of an overdose. It will mark the debut of Arin Ilejya, formerly of Confide, on drums.

[via Metal Injection]