Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

The heavy metal visionaries collectively known as AVATAR — vocalist Johannes Eckerström, guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin, and drummer John Alfredsson — have gone from strength to strength to strength over the past several years.

There’s the critically acclaimed, 2023-released album Dance Devil Dance, which included rock chart topper 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 band is looking forward to an even brighter future with today’s release of the brand new song “CAPTAIN GOAT.”LISTEN HERE

“I think it will be very clear to people hearing ‘Captain Goat’, that the rules once again have changed,” states vocalist Eckerström. “It will always be metal. It will always be Avatar. We will never do the same song twice and we will always find ways to reinvent ourselves. It’s the only way we know how to do this, and the only way to give ourselves a shot at being the best we have ever been. ‘Captain Goat’ uses the

motif of Satan and the spirit’s journey through the underworld as a meditation. It is a negotiation with the harsh state of being and finding acceptance as you navigate the ruthless darkness of life.”

Regarding the accompanying visual, he furthers, “In the video, we find a way to play with that, shamelessly lending imagery from various myths, folklore and legends. Besides, any day I get to see the boys undress for a part is a good day for all of us.”

Additionally, there are 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. There is more new music on the way, as well.

But for now, bow down to the Captain. Captain Goat, that is.

AVATAR ON TOUR:

WITH IRON MAIDEN:
7/3 — Belfort, FR — Eurockéennes
7/5 — Madrid, ES — Cívitas Metropolitano
7/6 — Lisbon, PT — MEO Arena
7/9 — Zurich, CH — Hallenstadion
7/11 — Gelsenkirchen, DE — Veltins Arena
7/13 — Padova, IT — Studio Euganeo
7/15 — Bremen, DE — Bürgerweide
7/17 — Vienna, AT — Ernst Happel Stadium
7/19 — Paris, FR — Paris La Défense Arena
7/20 — Paris, FR — Paris La Défense Arena
7/23 — Arnhem, NL — GelreDome
7/25 — Frankfurt, DE — Deutsche Bank Park
7/26 — Stuttgart, DE — Cannstatter Wasen
7/29 — Berlin, DE — Waldbühne Berlin
7/30 — Berlin, DE —Waldbühne Berlin
8/2 — Warsaw, PL — PGE Narodowy
8/9 — Kortrijk, BE — Alcatraz Festival*

2026 EUROPEAN HEADLINE TOUR:
2/5 — Stockholm, SE — Fållan
2/7 — Helsinki, FI — Kulttuuritalo
2/9 — Oslo, NO — Sentrum Scene
2/10 — Copenhagen, DK — Vega
2/11 — Osnabrück, DE — Die Botschaft
2/12 — Brussels, BE — A.B.
2/14 — London, UK — Exhibition
2/15 — Manchester, UK — Academy
2/16 — Glasgow, UK — Barrowland
2/17 — Nottingham, UK — Rock City
2/18 — Bristol, UK — O2 Academy
2/20 — Amsterdam, NL — AFAS Live
2/21 — Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU — Rockhal
2/22 — Zürich, CH — Komplex
2/24 — Barcelona, ES — Razzmatazz
2/25 — Madrid, ES — La Riviera
2/27 — Lisbon, PT — LAV
2/28 — Bilbao, ES — Santana 27
3/2 — Lyon, FR — Le Cube
3/3 — Milan, IT — Alcatraz
3/4 — Vienna, AT — Gasometer
3/5 — Munich, DE — Tonhalle
3/6 — Cologne, DE — E-Werk
3/7 — Paris, FR — Le Zenith
3/9 — Wiesbaden, DE — Schlachthof
3/10 — Zlin, CZ — Sports Hall Datart
3/11 — Warsaw, PL — Stodola
3/12 — Berlin, DE — Columbiahalle
3/13 — Hamburg, DE — Docks

SUPPORTING METALLICA — SUMMER 2026:
5/24 — Frankfurt, DE — Deutsche Bank Park
6/11 — Budapest, HU — Puskas Arena
6/19 — Dublin, IE — Aviva Stadium
7/5 — London, UK — London Stadium

ABOUT AVATAR:

As a strange light in the sky beckons you towards something forbidden, far away, you see a robed, horned ferryman, rowing across a restless sea at the end of days. Back home a strange sound rolls through your house. It comes from the basement. The news talks about a beautiful corpse, lauded for her magnificent demise on a dance floor by men who could have fixed her. You catch the last broadcast from an outpost succumbing to flames on a distant moon. Its inhabitants try to outrun their own madness. Outside there is a place you’re not allowed to go, no matter how intoxicating the gaze of the eyes among the trees.

You lay awake at night, yet you dream thousand dreams more real than any waking moment.

Strange times call for a strange band. With a life long commitment to the misfit arts, Avatar delves deep into the collective subconscious. They travel beyond the realms of flesh and far past the spiritual barriers broken in past works. No matter how many times they were warned, they keep treading deeper into the woods. There is sense to be made out of the senseless. They lay a soft gaze upon terrifying, almost shapeless inner landscapes, and they have a damn good time doing it.

Don’t go in the forest is a warning said by others, heeded as a challenge for a certain kind freak who just can’t fight the urge to seek truth and feel alive. It is a collection of strange tunes emerging from a circus tent in a meadow in a faraway valley. You can only ever get there by accident, walking a path impossible to remember and map out. Two eyes closed, one eye open.

Formed by John Alfredsson and Jonas Jarlsby as teenagers, soon joined by Johannes Eckerström, Henrik Sandelin and Simon Andersson, Avatar started an evolution that would see a group always looking to connect what you hear with what you see. Once Andersson left and Tim Öhrström joined, they had all the ingredients to a brew so potent it would forge their names into the souls of millions. More than a band, Avatar has evolved to concept art. In order to keep going with the same drive as they had on day one, they make sure that what is made must be done. Every single time must matter more than ever before. No matter how far they get, they are sworn to remain underdogs. There is so much to do, to try. So many ways to rediscover the simple yet sublime power hidden inside an electric guitar.

It’s all about trying new things, on and off stage. Choirs, brass instruments, Moogs, piano, cellos and violas. As long as it all worships at the altar of the riff, the possibilities are as vast as the universe. Don’t go in the forest once again stretches, bends and breaks the boundaries of what Avatar is and can be by providing both the most introspective as well as their most explosive moments. It is all done in a way that can only be achieved after a lifetime in servitude to the madness where all your gathered experiences are used to be reborn. In other words, by embracing discovery as the core tenet for what they do, every new release is as fresh and exciting as their very first time in a rehearsal room.

While the studio experience is becoming a more and more powerful tool for self expression, it is on the stage where Avatar truly comes alive. Every testimonial makes the same claims in all caps. Avatar is a MUST SEE experience. Every album cycle has provided record breaking milestones. A few of the more recent ones being kicking the door in on Latin America, first with Iron Maiden, and then with sold out shows all throughout Mexico and beyond. They have also become the talk of countless festivals across Europe and the United States, being a surefire stage closer and show stealer everywhere they go, all while setting attendance record after attendance record for their headline shows. From Australia to Brazil. From Scandinavia to the Mediterranean Sea. From the Pacific Northwest to the Deep South. Everywhere they go, their unique blend of suggestive theatrics and unabashed, unapologetic good heavy metal times, they have proven that there is only one Avatar and everyone else is playing for second place. Their impact is shown with chart toppers such as “The Dirt I’m Buried In” reaching heights that are hard to imagine from a band that has stepped into the craziest era in music history, taking matters into their own hand with their own independent label, Black Waltz Records.

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.