The heavy metal visionaries collectively known as AVATAR — vocalist Johannes Eckerström, guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin, and drummer John Alfredsson — previously announced the thoroughly fitting October 31 release of their latest masterwork Don't Go in the Forest. Pre-save it here.
Today, the band shares the visuazlier for the new single "Death And Glitz." Watch it below.
Eckerström states, ":Death and Glitz' is a song about perversion and detachment. A homeless, young runaway collapses and dies on a dancefloor. The crime scene tape becomes a red velvet rope. The investigator's camera flashes like paparazzi on the red carpet. We love her for dying. Now, she's perfect. Obedient. Anything you want."
He continues. "The true crime genre is as sick as the sickest goregrind band you've ever heard. Its popularity and the form in which it's being consumed, as a choice between Mickey Mouse and hospital dramas, reveals a darkness. The best ones are when it's someone young and attractive. A couple goes hiking. Only the man returns. What do we project on this very real person's very real tragedy? Do we see ourselves, with a strange envy for being so desired? Do we see a canvas on which we can paint the perfect future, if we were there to make it right? Do we completely dehumanize the victim and those who lost her, obsessed with the puzzle? No matter the reason, it is clear that no one is more obedient than the dead. People simply like it when death has a nice rack."
Regarding the album, Eckerström offers, "The secret ingredient is that we still feel like we're just getting started. Don't Go In The Forest is an album filled to the brim with stuff we've never done before. It's all songs and concepts we haven't been close to touch until now. The mind is wild and we have lost ourselves in the darkest woods, filled with memories, and fantasies. Forbidden thoughts that must be spoken."
He concludes, "It would have been impossible to make this album at any other time than now. That's all we ever wanted, and I think you'll find it's all you ever wanted too."
Avatar have gone from strength to strength over the past several years. There's the critically acclaimed, 2023-released album Dance Devil Dance, which included their first #1 at Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay, "The Dirt I'm Buried In." There have been scores of sold-out headline shows across the globe, and an actual fossil named after them. The list goes on and on.
But the past is the past and the future is, well, dark in the best possible way and that's JUST how Avatar like it!
Avatar will spend the foreseeable future (if not forever) on the road — with forthcoming tours supporting Iron Maiden and Metallica, along with the band's biggest show EVER in Mexico City. See below for a complete rundown of the band's planned tour activity for the next two years.
Avatar show no signs of pausing to take a breath in their quest for absolute world domination — much less stopping.
2025 U.S. HEADLINE TOUR:
11/5 — Phoenix, AZ — The Van Buren
11/6 — San Diego, CA — The Observatory San Diego
11/7 — Riverside, CA — Riverside Municipal Auditorium
11/8 — Las Vegas, NV — Brooklyn Bowl
11/10 — Seattle, WA — Moore Theater
11/11 — Portland, OR — Roseland Theatre
11/12 — Boise, ID — Revolution
11/14 — Salt Lake City, UT — The Union
11/15 — Denver, CO — Fillmore
11/17 — Minneapolis, MN — Fillmore
11/18 — Madison, WI — The Sylvee
11/20 — Detroit, MI — The Fillmore Detroit
11/21 — Pittsburgh, PA — Stage AE
11/22 — Columbus, OH — KEMBA Live!
11/23 — Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore Silver Spring
11/25 — Huntington, NY — Paramount
11/26 — Boston, MA — House of Blues
11/28 — Allentown, PA — Archer Music Hall
11/29 — Charlotte, NC — The Fillmore Charlotte
11/30 — Louisville, KY — Old Forester's Paristown Hall
12/2 — Chicago, IL — Riviera Theater
12/4 — Nashville, TN — Marathon Music Works
12/6 — Tulsa, OK — Tulsa Theater
12/7 — Dallas, TX — House of Blues
For centuries the circus would come to town. Now, for the first time in history, the gravitational pull of Avatar is so strong that the town is coming to the circus. A circus deep in the forest. A forbidden place. A taboo you are destined to break.
AVATAR ARE
Johannes Eckerström — Vocalist
Jonas Jarlsby — Guitarist
Tim Öhrström — Guitarist
Henrik Sandelin — Bassist
John Alfredsson — Drummer