AVATAR Dance Devil Dance Tour at The Van Buren

The journeyed, eccentric, Gothenburg, Sweden-founded melodic death metal act formed in 2001 and enjoyed major home country success with their fourth and fifth albums, 2009’s Avatar and 2012’s Black Waltz. It was between these releases that Avatar debuted the look which ultimately defined them, with their lead vocalist Johannes Eckerström presenting himself as a cross between the Joker and a ringmaster leading a group of jesters. It was a distinct image and made Avatar well-known internationally. Eckerström maintained this look into the 2020s with the release of 2023’s Dance Devil Dance.

Formed by two kindred musical souls who realized that their previous band was holding them back, Avatar were born when drummer John Alfredsson and guitarist Jonas Jarlsby decided that their positions in Lost Soul were going nowhere, so they left and regrouped under their new moniker. Eventually, Alfredsson and Jarlsby would be introduced to Eckerström, and the core of Avatar would be in place. To round out their membership, bassist Henrik Sandelin and guitarist Simon Andersson joined the fold in 2003, just in time to record the band’s first demo, Personal Observations. While gigging to promote this, Avatar stepped back into the studio to record their debut EP, 2004’s 4 Reasons to Die. Following the EP’s release, Avatar were given the opportunity to tour outside Sweden for the first time. They next entered the studio to work on a debut full-length and scored a deal with Gain Records during the recording process. That album, Thoughts of No Tomorrow, was released in 2006 and followed by two European tours, one with Impaled Nazarene, the other with Evergrey. Their busy year was rounded out with two shows alongside original Iron Maiden vocalist Paul Di’Anno.

Avatar had an equally busy 2007, starting off as the opening act for major metal band Stone Sour and finishing it with a new album. Schlacht, released in October of that year, was followed by a support slot on the 2008 Obituary tour. The group’s eponymous third studio album was released in 2009, and the next two years found Avatar hitting the tour circuit hard and embarking on their first-ever U.S. jaunt. Two nights before Halloween 2011 — in Helsingborg, Sweden — Eckerström stepped on-stage sporting his unhinged Joker look for the first time.

A couple of months later Andersson left the band and was replaced by the guitarist Tim Öhrström, who also provided backing vocals. Arriving in 2012, the well-received Black Waltz peaked at number 25 in their native Sweden, and 2014’s Hail the Apocalypse became the first Avatar outing to crack the Billboard 200. In 2016, the band issued its sixth studio long-player, Feathers & Flesh, a conceptual piece about an owl who declares war on the world. Their seventh effort, Avatar Country, arrived in early 2018. Produced by Jay Ruston (Stone Sour, Anthrax, Steel Panther), the album featured the singles “A Statue of the King” and “The King Wants You,” as well as Avatar’s spin on the Swedish royal anthem “Glory to Our King.” The following year, the band released their first live outing, The King Live in Paris. 2020 found them returning to the studio with Ruston to record their eighth album. The resulting Hunter Gatherer was issued toward the end of the year. In 2021, they founded their own label, Black Waltz Records, and it was on this imprint that they unveiled 2023’s Dance Devil Dance, featuring a duet with Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.

Underneath a maelstrom of polyrhythmic guitars, sweeping vocals, and shuddering beats, Veil of Maya encode a ponderous narrative at the core of their sixth full-length album, False Idol [Sumerian Records]. This time around, a captivating concept drives the quartet—Marc Okubo, Sam Applebaum, Danny Hauser, and Lukas Magyar.

The first single “Overthrow” revs up from a crushing tidal wave of riffing into a soaring and striking clean refrain. It taps into the expansive energy of signature fan favorites, while elevating the group to a new level.

Whether it’s the pulverizing power of “Lull” or knockout send-off of “Tyrant” and “Livestream,” False Idol exorcises an unforgettable narrative in the landscape of Veil of Maya’s most definitive work to date.

ORBIT CULTURE burst out of the underground scene with the release of 2020’s Nija album, which garnered worldwide critical acclaim from critics and metal fans alike. Their latest release, Shaman, sees them further expand upon their dynamic sound, developing a propulsive blend of metallic brilliance. While rooted in the classic Swedish metal genre paved by greats such as At The Gates, In Flames, and Meshuggah, they creatively expand upon it to create a more evolved, modernized sound that is simply undeniable. Shaman delivers on all fronts and showcases the band’s seamless efforts to effectively blend aggression, melody, and technicality.

The band states: “When it comes to the music, Shaman has a bit more flow to be executed more in a live setting, which was one of the goals creating it. We have some songs on Nija that we’d like to play live, but some of them just don’t quite translate as well as we want them to when we play them. We want to be a band able to run around the stage and invite people to the show and connect that way, rather than standing in one place and sweating over weird guitar patterns and whatnot. We think that’s the major difference between Nija to Shaman. We want people to be blown away live and the songs on this EP are constructed for that. Of course, you’ll get what you expect from us, heavy and fast guitars combined with low-tuned drops followed up by sing-along choruses with an exotic twist.”