News: AVATAR Release New Single Featuring LZZY HALE 'Violence No Matter What'

AVATAR Release New Single Featuring LZZY HALE ‘Violence No Matter What’

New Album ‘Dance Devil Dance’ Due 17th February 2023 Via Black Waltz Records

London Instore At Rough Trade East Set For Friday 17th Feb

Photo Credit: Pierre Veillet

The heavy metal, dark, madcap visionaries, collectively known as AVATAR, have emerged from deep within the Swedish forest in which they have been working on their ninth studio album, Dance Devil Dance, due for release 17th February 2023 via Black Waltz Records.

They’ve released a brand new single and official lyric video for ‘Violence No Matter What’, which features a duet with HALESTORM‘s Lzzy Hale.

Watch the official lyric video for ‘Violence No Matter What (Ft. Lzzy Hale)’ HERE.
Pre-order HERE.

The lead singer of AVATAR, Johannes Eckerström, says ‘Violence No Matter What’ is about:
“one thing and one thing only. It’s ok to debate and fight and to think differently. But there is a limit, and the line must be drawn at authority held with violence, a world view that cannot survive without enemies, a promised return to a fabricated former glory”.
The song is a duet with HALESTORM‘s vocalist Lzzy Hale. About the song she says:
“‘Violence No Matter What’ was such an inspiring piece to be a part of! Thank you so much to the boys for giving me the opportunity to express my angst against the horrors of this world through such a brilliant song.”

The band have also confirmed an in-store appearance at Rough Trade East at 7pm on release day. The band will sign copies of the new album and and participate in an “In Conversation With” event with fan Q & A. For more info check https://www.roughtrade.com/gb/events/east-london.

Tickets for this event are also available via DICE, HERE.

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Dance Devil Dance

1. Dance Devil Dance
2. Chimp Mosh Pit
3. Valley Of Disease
4. On The Beach
5. Do You Feel In Control
6. Gotta Wanna Riot
7. The Dirt I’m Buried In
8. Clouds Dipped In Chrome
9. Hazmat Suit
10. Train
11. Violence No Matter What (Ft. Lzzy Hale)

AVATAR enjoyed quite a productive summer, traipsing North America on a successful headline tour. They next embarked on some of the biggest shows of their career – a trek with Iron Maiden, supporting the band in stadiums in Brazil. AVATAR also played arenas supporting Sabaton and secured major festival appearances globally with INKcarceration, Cadott Fest, Summer Breeze, and Bloodstock.

As for AVATAR‘s mission? There are no weapons on this planet that can challenge the might of the electric guitar. For decades, metal has been the most powerful force known to man. It’s sonic teeth have gnawed through the status quo over and over, pushing the boundaries for what can be created in the marriage between blood and machine. If Mount Rushmore were to be carved for all the titans of the genre, it would span the entire globe many times over. It’s a burning beacon for the misfits and the rebels.

As time has passed, much of the scene has become divided in two equally stale camps. The first is forever stuck in the past, no longer seeking to lead. The second are those who have forgotten the most important ingredients to what made metal what it was and must remain. They’ve lost touch with the Devil. They’ve forgotten how to move. In a genre best experienced with your whole body, they’ve lost the lust.

Dance Devil Dance was recorded in the Swedish wilderness, far away from all the perceived glamour of the big city and modern studios. Jay Ruston, (Anthrax, Mr. Bungle, Crobot, Stone Sour, Amon Amarth, Uriah Heep), returned as producer. He first worked with the band when he mixed Hail the Apocalypse, a role he reprised on Feathers & Flesh before taking the wheel as producer on Avatar Country and Hunter Gatherer. No extra personnel were wanted nor needed. They stayed together for a month, eating, sleeping, and breathing Dance Devil Dance, just the six of them.

“You always hear bands say, ‘This is our best album yet.’ This is our best album yet. It is AVATAR at our most laser-focused, at our most razor sharp. There’s no BS, no extra fat. Every track is a weapon and has a purpose. It’s all in the title, as this album is our angriest, horniest, and most spiritual release, all at once. It’s a must-hear,” confesses the band.

With grit and sheer force of will, they made the music the only way metal ever should be done. Modern metal too often becomes homogenised by everyone using the same drum samples and presets for guitars. Dance Devil Dance is the sound of our bodies in motion, and nothing else. It sounds hard because we play hard. It’s loud because we are loud. Every band knows the challenge of capturing the rage of a stage performance on tape. This time we succeeded. This album bleeds black blood, bludgeoned by the road.
We are a metal circus. The road is our home. Dance Devil Dance mirrors all the madness of this world and worlds beyond. It’s celebration of the ugly and a challenge in the face of all things deemed beautiful. Metal should make you move. Metal is music for the body. We don’t know when it happened but it seems that at some point recently, most of the world decided that this music was best enjoyed sitting down. This is a great tragedy and it must be rectified. Why have drums, why have bass, if people don’t move their feet?

And feet will move indeed. Our music was always made for the stage first, as anyone can attest to, whether it’s as an opening band for greats such as Iron Maiden or Slipknot, or playing the major stages on Wacken, Hellfest, Download, Rock on the Range, Poland Rock, and many more, or bringing the entire freakshow with us, headlining night after night. From coast to coast across the United States of America and Canada. From Mexico down all the way to Brazil; all over Europe, north, south, east and west. The whole world is our stage and you better get ready, because when we begin you will all be the Devil’s playthings.

AVATAR hit the UK on a string of headline shows in February 2023, with support from Mastiff and Veil of Maya.

Full dates below:

18.02 – Manchester, Academy
19.02 – Nottingham, Rock City
20.02 – Glasgow, SWG3
22.02 – Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill
23.02 – Bristol, SWX
24.02 – Southampton, 1865
25.02 – London, O2 Forum Kentish Town

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