AVATAR ARE FIRMLY ON THE “NAUGHTY LIST” (FEAT. ZAKK WYLDE) — WATCH
TOURING EUROPE THROUGH DECEMBER
SUPPORTING METALLICA THROUGHOUT NORTH AMERICA IN 2027
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 been put on the “Naughty List” by Santa.
In classic AVATAR fashion, there is NO place they’d rather be. Closing out the calendar year with a twist, the pioneers of avant garde deliver a track gift-wrapped in authenticity, individuality, and unapologetic expression.
Today, AVATAR has shared the official music video for their newest single “Naughty List,” featuring none other than Zakk Wylde, who employs his signature craftsmanship on a fiery solo further amplifying this standout track, making this a release fans surely won’t want to miss. Guitarist Öhrström personally asked Zakk if he would like to be a part of the song while both were supporting Metallica last summer.
“The idea is that the ‘Naughty List’ is full of people who are different rather than bad, and someone needs to have their backs, too,” says Eckerström. “It is a song about forgiveness and acceptance, and doing what is actually the right thing to do, rather than just following the norm.”
. This Halloween, AVATAR celebrated the one year anniversary of their latest studio masterwork Don’t Go In The Forest. Experience and get the album HERE.
The ringmasters show no signs of slowing as they return to the road for their 2026 European headline tour to close out the year. Soon after, Latin America will join the circus in January of 2027.
Following an action packed summer supporting Metallica on the M72 World Tour across Europe, AVATAR are set to reunite with them once again in the summer of 2027 for the North American tour alongside Limp Bizkit as support. With more headline dates, international touring and a second summer alongside Metallica ahead, AVATAR continue to expand their spectacle.
EUROPE 2026:
11/20 — Wolverhampton, England — KK’s Steelmill*
11/21 — Southampton, England — O2 Guildhall*
11/22 — Cardiff, Wales — Depot*
11/24 — Dublin, Ireland — National Stadium*
11/25 — Belfast, N. Ireland — Limelight*
11/27 — Norwich, England — UEA
11/28 — Newcastle, England — Northumbria Uni
11/29 — Edinburgh, Scotland — Corn Exchange
12/1 — Amsterdam, Netherlands — Gashouder
12/3 — Oberhausen, Germany — Turbinenhalle
12/5 — Budapest, Hungary — Barba Negra Red
12/6 — Prague, Czechia — Sasazu
12/8 — Innsbruck, Austria — Musichall
12/9 — Linz, Austria — Posthof
12/10 — Ulm, Germany — Roxy
12/11 — Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg — Rockhal
12/12 — Zürich, Switzerland — Komplex
12/13 — Frankfurt, Germany — Zoom
12/15 — Padova, Italy — Hall
12/16 — Ljubljana, Slovenia — Cvetlicarna
12/17 — Zagreb, Croatia — Boogaloo
12/18 — Bratislava, Slovakia — Majestic Music Club
12/19 — Wrocław, Poland — A2
*POSTPONED
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 of 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.
AVATAR ARE
Johannes Eckerström — Vocalist
Jonas Jarlsby — Guitarist
Tim Öhrström — Guitarist
Henrik Sandelin — Bassist
John Alfredsson — Drummer
