SJM: Give our readers a short briefing about Avatar at first, please. What do we definitely have to know about your band?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: I guess the most important thing at the moment is the release of our third album ‘Avatar’. It will be out in Germany on March 26 and will be accompanied by us doing a club tour alongside Warrior Soul. As we are who we are I can promise you high octane entertainment that will bring you to the knees. We are the hungriest motherfuckers out there right now and we will make you have fun whether you want it or not. This is a must-see!

SJM: Where and how did you guys meet and decide to become a band? Did all 5 members of the band have an equal vision about how the band should sound like from the beginning or is the music sort of a "compromise" of all the Avatar-members?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: Dude, it’s on the homepage. Haha! But yeah, it started with John (drums) and Jonas (guitars) meeting each other and forming the band. I was introduced through a friend who I was playing with at the time and Henrik and Simon came in to the picture when we started high school. We’ve been the same five nut jobs ever since. The only thing we knew was that we wanted to play metal so we did. The songs we covered at the beginning were from everything between Helloween and Cannibal Corpse. When we started to write our own stuff we pretty much tried out different blends of what we liked. This led to technical, extreme and melodic insanity. In more recent times we started to put in much more rock’n’roll into the mix and that is where we are today. We all love it and we created it together.

SJM: Avatar were introduced by their debut "Thoughts Of No Tomorrow", but it seems that after your second release "Schlacht" you became quite more than an underground act in Sweden within a short period of time. What about your status as a band in Sweden after the release of "Schlacht" and right now?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: We’re growing. It’s all good! It’s a slow growth however since we make sure to keep control over what we do. Good things are definitely around the corner right now with the deals we’ve made with Sony Music and all that. Germany is in a lot of trouble!

SJM: I think I am not that wrong claiming that the music of Avatar can be easily filed under 'modern Deathmetal'. Would you agree to that? How would you explain that Swedish Metal is so popular in these days? What have Swedish people in their veins that they play such great hard rocking music?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: Well, I love death metal. We all do, but I can’t say that it’s the right description of what we do. It’s such a small part of our stuff nowadays coming from that direction. I find more thrash, heavy metal and rock in it, but hey – that’s just me talking. I do agree however that we are very modern and I think we’ve been able to modernize things that people seem to have thought belonged to the old school. I specifically mean the way we use high pitch vocals. To me they sound very modern even if I might have listened to quite a lot of Priest and Accept at the time. Haha!
I simply think that Sweden and all of Scandinavia is a good planting school for metal music. It’s just such a strong part of the sub-cultures here now that it has become a way of life.

SJM: Well, I´m personally more into hardcore than metal, but I can easily relate to the music on your new album "Avatar". Would it be an explanation that the whole guitar-driven scene is influenced by Scandinavian Metal (like a lot of Metalcore acts)?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: They stole it all! Hahaha! No seriously I guess you have a point regarding the so called metalcore. I wouldn’t say that guitar-driven rythm and blues is very influenced by what we do up here though.

SJM: Please excuse me, but the comparison that came to my mind when I first listened to "Avatar" was bands like Lamb Of God, Trivium and Children Of Bodom. Is that a comparison you could live with? The sound of these bands is also very modern, catchy and melodic. Could this be the introduction of a more modern kind of Death Metal?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: We listened to C.O.B. when we grew up but that is all I can say about any comparison. The lambs are a great band and I’ve enjoyed a bit of Trivium as well, but I’m not into them enough to see that we would sound much alike. I listen to Black Sabbath and then do my thing. Hehehe...

SJM: Were the songs which now made it on "Avatar" already written when you entered the studio to record them or did you have the possibility to even improve them in the studio and experiment a little bit?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: The creation had to phases which both took place in the same studio. When we started the second phase which was the actual recording, we had demos that showed exactly what we wanted the songs to become. You always improve and experiment until the very last second, but most of it was laid out beforehand. The whole process took about 7 months or so.

SJM: If you compare the visions you had of "Avatar" before the record was produced and compare it to your own impressions listening to the songs now – what´s the difference? What can you as a band say about "Avatar"?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: Doing an album is real rollercoaster ride for us. We experiment a lot and many ideas came and went away. The second we had the vision though we stuck with it until the end of the project and we are extremely proud of it

SJM: What things would you mention if you were asked which aspects you like most on your new record? Why especially these aspects?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: I take great pride in the vocals, among other things. It was necessary for us to start with melodic vocals in order to be creative in a way we enjoyed and it feels good not to have fallen in to any traps of generic styles which are out there among bands that mix screams and melodies. It feels fresh.

SJM: Do the lyrics on "Avatar" are lyrics which are typical for the Death Metal genre? What can be said about them and what do they mainly deal with? Do they have a certain attitude, a certain intention?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: The lyrics are about outsiders and their revenge. You’ll find this main theme embedded in stories about sex, violence and science fiction among other things. There is very little about them that is death metal in my opinion.

SJM: What are you about to do till the record is about to be officially released over here in Germany? What further plans do you have? Can we expect instant touring? How about playing shows in Germany?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: We rehearse and drink beer. Write some new stuff and prepare to conquer Germany. Promo-work gets in the way a bit but that’s all right.

SJM: I always leave the last statement to the band. Is there anything that has to be said or added?

Johannes Eckerström / Avatar: Check out www.avatar.net for news, www.myspace.com/avataronline for sounds and www.youtube.com/avatartube for fun.
Vielen dank mann! Hat Spass gemacht! Viele Grüsse und prost!

(Dennis Grenzel)