Still NFT-sceptic? That makes you and millions of others. But many forward-thinking artists and their communities are already reaping the benefits of having faith in the blockchain, and its potential to provide exclusive real-world utility.

Take Avenged Sevenfold as an example. The Huntington Beach metal titans are no stranger to the blockchain, having launched an NFT-based fanclub, Deathbats Club, in 2021, and earlier this year, Season Pass, a Fortnite-style progression system which rewards the band’s most dedicated fans with special perks.

• READ MORE: Avenged Sevenfold celebrate their 25th anniversary with spooky virtual museum inside Fortnite

And Deathbats Club members were treated to a very special intimate concert at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California on Friday (25 October), with a setlist composed entirely of songs from the band’s first three albums: Sounding the Seventh Trumpet (2001), Waking the Fallen (2003) and City of Evil (2005).

Tickets were made available exclusively for Deathbats Club members back in August, priced at $25 each.

Supported by Orange County hardcore punk outfit Death By Stereo, A7X took to the stage for an 11-track setlist, with fan favourites like Beast and the Harlot, Seize the Day and Unholy Confessions interspersed with rarities including Remenissions, Desecrate Through Reverence, and even Sounding the Seventh Trumpet opener To End The Rapture.

In the spirit of Spooky Season, frontman M Shadows performed in a skeleton one-piece, while guitarist Synyster Gates donned a trilby which may or may not have been a nod to his City of Evil-era look.

Take a look at the full setlist below:

1. To End The Rapture (first time since 2017)
2. Chapter Four (first time since 2018)
3. Burn It Down (first time since 2018)
4. Blinded In Chains
5. Remenissions (first time since 2016)
6. Seize The Day
7. Second Heartbeat (first time since 2018)
8. Desecrate Through Reverence (first time since 2004, first performance with Brooks Wackerman)
9. Unholy Confessions
10. Beast And The Harlot (first time since 2018; fans playing with band)
11. M.I.A. (first time since 2018)

When we spoke to M Shadows earlier this year, he acknowledged that many music fans still have a way to go in understanding how the blockchain can make their experience better, but said that in the case of the “6,000” people already on the Deathbats Club, they “don’t want it any other way”.

“It’s gonna take time for that to permeate into society and for other artists to say, ‘We’re gonna put the work in and build out something like this,’” he said. “Because it did take us a lot of work. We were building for two years in the bear market, even though that was irrelevant to us; the price didn’t ever matter.

“But we were building for two years when everyone else gave up on it. They didn’t see the vision, they didn’t care about the technology, they didn’t understand it. They were just trying to fucking sell shit to their fans.”

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