Avatar Concert Photo’s

Towards the end of their Dance Devil Dance tour, on May 26^th Avtar played to a fully sold out show at the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA. Described as being in the heavy metal genre, there are many other musical influences to be heard within Avatar’s songs from classical to a more definitive melodic death metal. Having formed in Gothenburg Sweden in 2001, they have come a long way from home and based on the how much the crowd clearly loved them, it was a trip well made.

            Despite Philadelphia stop being second to last on their tour promoting their new album, “Dance Devil Dance” which was released on February 17^th of this year. Avatar and their supporting acts; Veil of Maya and Orbit Culture, were all still able to bring a massive amount of energy to the stage. Even just the covered platforms in the background of Veil of Maya and Orbit Culture’s sets built the anticipation of the production to come.

            I first heard of Avatar in 2016 when they played Rock Allegiance and from then to now, I am still blown away by not only how the front man, Johannes Eckerström controls a crowd, but also his sheer range. This range being both in a vocal sense to him switching from just vocals, to balloon animal artist, to trombonist, to pianist. With some of the in between banter to the crowd, one could arguably add comedian to that list.

            Looking at the rest of the band, it was very apparent how much they love performing, from drummer John Alfredsson’s second drum set closer to the crowd and his dance moves, simply to his sheer expressiveness visually. Bassist Henrik Sandelin provided backing vocals with guitarist Tim but even when it wasn’t his time to sing you could see him mouthing the words along. The guitarists; Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby and his role of King during the song “A Statue of the King” and Tim Öhrström and the flow of his interactions with his bandmates. Overall very impressive to me was how perfectly in sync they all were when headbanging.

            Playing 18 songs, starting strong with the album titled song “Dance Devil Dance” and ending just as strong (if not stronger) with 3 of their most popular songs spanning 3 albums during their encore. “The Dirt I’m Buried In” from “Dance Devil Dance”, “Smells Like a Freak Show” from “Black Waltz”, and “Hail The Apocalypse” from the album of the same name. Start to finish, Avatar put on a phenomenal show with such vigor and spirit that never stopped or waivered.

Review by Jess Ripper for Sofa King Cool Magazine