Violence, theatricality, and intense lyrics are some of the elements that make Avatar Iron Maiden fans were able to witness during the band's visit to the country to attend the Maiden's solo shows. In an interview with Wikimetal , frontman Johannes Eckerström spoke about the current state of metal, the band's genre, and what to expect from the new album.
The band, formed in Gothenburg two decades ago, has a sound that transcends the traditional boxes of musical genres, even in times with so many subgenres that the term "circus metal" has already been used to describe the band, albeit erroneously. "I don't know what that would mean. I'm a clown, but not because we play 'circus metal,' but because we are a metal circus," he explains.
The most common definition is melodic death metal, and Johannes doesn't deny the influence of his home country's scene, but there's an unnamed ingredient in the band's formula. "We definitely use a lot of extreme things in our music, and there's a lot of death metal going on, but along with several other things because we're trying to do something new, built on very classic ideas of what metal is," he continued. "Our inspiration comes from a little bit of everything."
The band's visual appeal is undeniable. With a maniacally smiling clown as frontman, a show featuring choreographed headbanging, and different uniforms for each era, Avatar fascinates not only with its sound but also with the incredible union between music and its own universe. "We're always trying to answer the question: 'What does our music look like?' And every artistic endeavor is about wanting to express ourselves as much as possible. As far as we're concerned, I think being in a band is a form of conceptual art," said the singer about the importance of this symbiosis.
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With The Beatles, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, The Haunted , and Iron Maiden on the "shortest possible list" of key influences for the band, Johannes doesn't expect new metal bands to take the place of these icons when the time comes, but he is pleased with the recent changes in the scene.
“We’re doing well. And I like that [the scene] is more geographically widespread. People used to only listen to European or American bands. But now, the best bands can come from Sweden, but also [from other places]. We all fell in love with Crypta, Jinjer, and Alien Weaponry . You look at the map and it’s become something global,” he observed. “This shows the strength of what metal is and how metal is a subculture with guitars, power, and it’s loud, but you can shape it with your local culture. You can bring your samba, folk music, blues, whatever, and it works. In that sense, metal is better than ever, and I’m happy to be part of this facet of the style.”
In their most recent album, the dark and critical Hunter Gatherer (2020), the Swedes expose humanity's unstoppable race towards a not-so-promising future in which "genocide begins with the trees," as the lyrics of "Age of Apes" state.
Although Johannes is currently the main composer, the friends share the same views on important political and social issues. “We are all vegan, for example. And we are not fans of internet troll factories and populist political movements, that kind of thing. We agree on many fundamental aspects, on what we value, respect, and how we see humanity and the world,” he said.
The time has come for Avatar to begin a new and promising era, with the first single arriving this Friday, the 23rd, promising music that will make you "see the devil and dance" in a "rock n' roll album full of death metal elements, but which is still rock," with violence and sincerity.
With unwavering confidence, Johannes promises "the best album of their career" on the band's ninth album, to be released in early 2023. This certainty, according to the singer, stems from his ability to relate to Rob Halford's description of the recording of Judas Priest 's British Steel : "They cut out the excess. They became sharper in what they were doing. You remove the excesses, you find your focus in what you're doing."
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