Following Avenged Sevenfold‘s apparent social media hack earlier this week, the band’s fans over on Reddit have been doing a lot of investigating and think that they’re onto something.
On Feb. 26, a piece of audio was uploaded to Avenged’s Trax podcast, which featured an AI-version of frontman M. Shadows‘ voice breaking the news that the band had to cancel some of their upcoming festival performances because they were experiencing delays with their new album.
Shadows tweeted the audio link shortly after saying that it wasn’t him, and in a separate tweet, denied that their festival appearances were canceled. Synyster Gates also tweeted about the situation, stating that they were going to be “looking into” whatever was going on.
Well, apparently something is going on. We’ve combed through some threads on the Avenged Sevenfold Reddit page, and one individual even created a Google Doc with all of the information the fans have compiled by following different clues and solving puzzles. Some of it is a bit complex, so we’re going to try and break it down as simply as possible for you.
Shortly after the alleged hacking, a user on Reddit named “libad5343” posted a photo of Avenged Sevenfold’s Twitter account that had the option to “Edit Profile” on the side — meaning the user was logged into the band’s account, so they could potentially be the hacker. Another browser tab in the photo showed a website titled Libad5343.net, and the one to the right of it was for Pornhub… we aren’t sure if that’s relevant to the rest of the puzzle yet, but stay tuned.
Upon digging, the band’s fans on Reddit discovered that this “libad5343” user also has a Twitter account, which has posted a couple of vague tweets, but one of the more recent ones is a screenshot that says “Updating files.”
Furthermore, fans actually went to the Libad5343.net website themselves, which appears to be some sort of fan blog that has entries that date back to 2004. There are album reviews, show reviews and opinionated pieces about the group’s progress throughout their career.
But, over the last few days, the site has also generated a plethora of strange pop-up graphics, cryptic puzzles and other riddles for visitors. One of the recurring characters throughout the site’s pop-ups has been a cartoonish clown, though it’s unclear what the significance of the clown is as of now.
Some of the older “blog entries” on the site, particularly the ones dated for 2007 and 2004, contain clues on how to decipher certain HTML and JavaScript codes, a cipher algorithm and instructions on how to use a Linux Terminal.
If we haven’t lost you yet, this is where it gets a bit more interesting.
Other fans on the band’s Discord have already done the work and cracked some of the codes, one of which generated a set of coordinates. The location in question was The Ritz venue in San Jose, Calif., and a person actually went to the location and took photos of the front of the building, which read, “Libad5343 Presents Nobody.” So, there are actual connections between the codes on the website and places in the real world.
Some theories fans have come up with state that “Libad” is an acronym for the band’s new album title — Life Is But a Dream and Life Is Better After Death were two examples. Additionally, someone used the “inspect” tool on the band’s logo on their website and found “obody” written diagonally within the N of Sevenfold, so “Nobody” may or may not be a title we should keep in mind, especially because “Libad Presents Nobody” was written on the Ritz.
As of now, if you go to the Libad5343.net website, a green screen appears and the text “Time to go touch some grass…,” which some users believe means the band wants fans to take a break from solving the puzzles until they announce what’s going on.
Stay tuned as more is uncovered.
Avenged Sevenfold ‘Libad’ Website
Libad5343.net
Most Anticipated Rock + Metal Albums of 2023
2023 is looking good for rock and metal albums already.
