Avatar (band)
Avatar | |
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![]() Avatar Live at the Free & Easy Festival 2015 |
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General information | |
origin | Gothenburg , Sweden |
Genre (s) | Melodic Death Metal |
founding | 2001 as Lost Soul |
Website | www.avatarmetal.com |
Current occupation | |
Johannes Eckerström | |
Jonas "Kungen" Jarlsby | |
Tim Öhrström | |
Henrik Sandelin | |
John Alfredsson | |
former members | |
Christian Rimmi | |
Kim Egerbo | |
Albin Dahlquist | |
Simon Andersson |
Avatar is a Swedish band from Gothenburg .
Band history

The band was founded in 2001 by John Alfredsson under the name Lost Soul . Shortly afterwards Jonas Jarlsby joined them, but the band name was the main reason for the lack of interest from other potential members, whereupon it was changed to Avatar. Shortly after the name change, more members joined and the band began to cover songs by Cannibal Corpse , In Flames , Iron Maiden , Slayer , Vader and Helloween .
In 2003 Avatar did their first shows. Johannes Eckerström left the band for a short time, but returned a short time later after two potential musicians, Henrik Sandelin and Simon Andersson, had joined the band. In the summer of the same year they wrote their first own songs together, with which, among other things, the first demo Personal Observations was recorded. However, the musicians described these recordings as a disaster, whereupon they bought new guitars and repeated the recordings. After Personal Observations was done, they tried to market them and played their first concerts. During this time they recorded the EP 4 Reasons to Die . They also took part in more and more talent shows, which meant that their fan base around Gothenburg grew steadily. The band played other concerts on the entire west coast of Sweden and for the first time outside of Sweden in Copenhagen . Although the band became more and more successful, they never got a request from a record company. So they paid for the recordings for their first album themselves.
In early 2006 the debut album Thoughts of No Tomorrow was released , after which the band held their first joint concerts in Scandinavia with Hardcore Superstar and Dismember . Then in May they went on a European tour for the first time with Impaled Nazarene . Further concerts and a second European tour with Evergrey followed within this year . In 2007 Avatar toured Scandinavia with Stone Sour and In Flames . In the summer they then played at the Hultsfred Festival, among other things . On October 24, 2007 the band released their second album Schlacht . In contrast to the debut album, it also contained true metal influences for the first time . After the release followed a small tour through Sweden with Soilwork , Death Breath , Volbeat and Pain .
In January 2008 the band toured again across Europe together with Obituary and Holy Moses and played a month later as the opening act at a Megadeth concert . They were also featured in Close-Up magazine. Concerts with Soilwork , Backyard Babies , Danko Jones and Municipal Waste followed . Thereupon Avatar started their first overseas tour to the USA , where they played with bands like Enslaved or Sabaton . This was followed by another appearance at the Sweden Rock Festival .
In 2009 they took a little break and started writing new songs for their third album. After the recordings were finished, they toured Europe one more time with Hardcore Superstar and headlined several shows alongside Within Y and Degradead . This year the self-titled album Avatar followed , which hit the charts in Sweden at # 36 for the first time.
For the summer of 2010 the release of the DVD Blood, Noise, Fire, Metal was also planned, which should contain video material from a concert in Gothenburg . Originally the release was scheduled for June 18th. Due to delays in printing the booklet, the release date was postponed by almost two weeks to the end of June, although the album is still not available in stores.
- Avatar Live @ Free & Easy Festival 2015
Discography
Chart placements (preliminary) Explanation of the data |
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Albums | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Albums
- 2006: Thoughts of No Tomorrow
- 2007: battle
- 2010: Avatar
- 2012: Black Waltz
- 2014: Hail the Apocalypse
- 2016: Feathers & Flesh
- 2018: Avatar Country
- 2020: Hunter Gatherer
EPs and demos
- 2003: Personal Observations (Demo)
- 2004: 4 Reasons to Die (EP)
Singles
- 2005: And I Bid You Farewell
- 2005: My Shining Star
- 2009: The Great Pretender
- 2014: Hail the Apocalypse
- 2016: For the Swarm
- 2016: The Eagle Has Landed
- 2018: A Statue of the King
- 2020: God of Sick Dreams
swell
- ↑ a b c d e biography of the band on avatar.net ( Memento from September 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Announcement of the release of Avatar's live DVD "Blood, Noise, Fire, Metal" ( Memento from May 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Delays in the release of Blood, Noise, Fire, Metal ( Memento from April 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Blood, Noise, Fire, Metal still not available , textalk.se, accessed on February 15, 2011
- ↑ Chart sources: Sweden Germany Austria Switzerland US
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Avatar at Myspace (English)
- Avatar at YouTube (English)
- Avatar at metal-archives.com (English)