Avatar Release Two Vastly Different New Singles

Andreas Lawen, Fotandi, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
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Last we heard from Swedish harlequin-metallers Avatar was the announcement of their North American tour with Tallah and Magic Sword. Now, in honor of the kicking off of that trek, the band have dropped two new singles — and they sound about as different from one another as they possibly could.

The first track, “Going Hunting,” is one of the band’s patented heavy ballads, starting dulcet and poignant before building into an operatic crescendo. The track is accompanies by a poetic music video which ends with a goosebump-inducing metamorphosis. Meanwhile, “Barren Cloth Mother” is a straight-up charging death metal track; though it contains frontman Johannes Eckerström’s clean vocals, it’s primarily a thrashy riff-fest.

“Since the early ’60s, Swedish children have grown up reading Lee Falk’s The Phantom,” says the band of their new songs. “According to legend, The Phantom has the strength of 10 tigers. Thus, Avatar now has the strength of three Phantoms and are therefore finally unstoppable. Thirty Tigers are innovators and we are very excited to have signed with them. It’s good to work with such forward thinking people who truly understand what it means to be an artist in this millennium.

“This calls for a celebration,” they continue as though any of what they’ve just said makes sense, “so to commemorate this occasion, and the tour we’re just about to embark on, we’ve chosen to tear up some eardrums with ‘Going Hunting’ and ‘Barren Cloth Mother.’ Both songs tell about inner and outer darkness in their own ways. We keep sailing over dark oceans, staring down into the abyss. These songs, as great as they are, are just a taste of what’s yet to come.”

Check out “Going Hunting” below:

And here’s “Barren Cloth Mother” below:

Catch Avatar playing these songs (hopefully) on tour at one of the dates below:

Sep 01 x Albany, NY x The Egg Performing Arts Center
Sep 02 x Baltimore, MD x Baltimore Soundstage
Sep 03 x New York, NY x Irving Plaza
Sep 04 x Boston, MA x Big Night Live
Sep 05 x Philadelphia, PA x TLA
Sep 07 x Fort Wayne, IN x Piere’s
Sep 08 x Pittsburgh, PA x Roxian Theatre
Sep 09 x Cleveland, OH x House of Blues Cleveland
Sep 12 x Asheville, TN x The Orange Peel
Sep 13 x Atlanta, GA x Buckhead Theatre
Sep 15 x Chicago, IL x House of Blues Chicago
Sep 17 x Madison, WI x The Sylvee
Sep 20 x Kansas City, MO x The Truman
Sep 21 x Lincoln, NE x Bourbon Theatre
Sep 22 x Minneapolis, MN x The Fillmore Minneapolis
Sep 25 x St. Louis, MO x Delmar Hall
Sep 26 x Oklahoma City, OK x Diamond Ballroom
Sep 27 x Dallas, TX x House of Blues Dallas
Sep 28 x Houston, TX x House of Blues Houston
Sep 29 x San Antonio, TX x The Aztec Theatre
Oct 01 x Albuquerque, NM x Sunshine Theater
Oct 02 x Denver, CO x Summit Denver
Oct 03 x Salt Lake City, UT x The Depot, SLC
Oct 05 x Phoenix, AZ x The Van Buren
Oct 06 x Los Angeles, CA x The Wiltern
Oct 07 x Las Vegas, NV x House of Blues Las Vegas
Oct 10 x Grand Junction, CO x Mesa Theater
Oct 12 x Billings, MT x The Pub Station
Oct 14 x Spokane, WA x Knitting Factory [Spokane]
Oct 15 x Portland, OR x Roseland Theater
Oct 16 x Boise, ID x Revolution Concert House in Boise
Oct 18 x Seattle, WA x Neptune

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Words by Chris Krovatin