Avatar Think It’s Their Duty to Save Heavy Metal
In an interview sure to piss off comments sections worldwide, Swedish alt-metal mainstays Avatar discussed their upcoming album and their perceived obligation to metal as a whole.
Speaking to TotalRock, vocalist Johannes Eckerström starts off with the usual interview banter, saying that their upcoming, and still untitled/unannounced, ninth album is high-quality stuff (via Blabbermouth).
“The short version is we will make you see the devil, and we will make you dance. You’ve heard every band say it’s their best album yet. This is our best album yet.”
Eckerström then continues by comparing said album to Judas Priest, because that’s totally the comparison everyone thinks of when they hear Avatar.
“My best thing to liken it to is British Steel in the sense of that… Judas Priest were always great, and before British Steel you had Killing Machine, you had Sad Wings Of Destiny and all this, but they were a great heavy metal band, a great rock and roll band, a great prog band at times and kind of eclectic. And then with British Steel I find they really got laser focused, cut off the fat. And we’re focused on what we feel right now metal needs — this very pompous but yet…”
Surely it doesn’t get more pompous than Avatar comparing their new record to British Steel, right? Eckerström continues his thought, telling the interviewer that Avatar need to save heavy metal. What the genre needs saving from isn’t exactly clear, but the singer has plenty to say anyway.
“Honestly, I feel like we have to save heavy metal. Because either people are lost in the past… They did it better than we will ever do what they do. Don’t do that. What’s next? What’s next for us? And do that without disappearing up your own asses completely.
“When people end up doing metal that is best enjoyed while sitting down and shutting up, you miss the point. Metal is the music that you move to — in the pit, banging your head, dancing around, whatever, lifting weights, drinking too much, getting pregnant, impregnating someone, doing things. It’s music to move with. You have drums in the band; why would you have drums if you don’t move?
“We look a lot to the masters — that is wisdom from Motörhead, from Judas Priest, from a lot of things — but then just… yeah, that, but not that. They did that. We’re now and what’s next with that. Where can we try to help bring it? And that is this album.”
The singer’s point about living in the past might make more sense if his band wasn’t playing a style of music that sounds like mid-period Lamb of God mixed with Korn. If getting impregnated or impregnating someone to Avatar’s heavy-metal-saving tunes is your idea of a good time, don’t let us stop you: their new single “Cruel and Unusual” is out now.
