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Avatar is a very young band that started their course in September 2003. After recording a demo called “Personal Observations” they have recorded their second effort on CD called “4 reasons to die”, an EP released by the band´s own label Bloodstained Art Entertainment. In these times of uncertainty in the music business, Avatar have tried to follow the self-financed way and their courage and determination is something worth my praise. The cover art has caught my attention, it´s a really nice picture à la Tim Burton, very original, by the way! From that drawing one could think this band plays prog twisted avantgarde metal or something similar. Wrong. Melodic death metal is what we´re going to find in “4 reasons to die”. Like many other Swedish acts, technically speaking these guys are advanced. However, music is more than handling the instruments and the songs performed in this EP are far from being boring or bad. Without a doubt these band is able to do important things in the future if they polish the style and find their own way, developing their style.
Avatar is halfway between The Haunted and In Flames, quoting At The Gates in the description, to say it briefly. I would describe their sound as “melodic furious Swedish death”, coming the fury especially from the aggressive vocals, slightly shrieky sometimes, which add that “hysterical” element to the music –without matching the intensity and utter madness of Tomas Lindberg-. Basically it´s aggressive -not brutal- death metal with a strong dose of melody in the vein of the classic Göteborg style whose flag carried In Flames some time ago, but Avatar manage to perform music that in several moments has nothing to do with that band (take for instance the first song that begins with a The Haunted-esque passage, frantic as hell...). Some flutes and accoustic intros are used to enrich the songs in loose fragments. The overall sound of the EP is rather correct, except for the fact that the bass is hardly audible, but it´s just a flaw in the whole result: guitars are very clean and powerful and rule the sound with no weaknesses, and John Alfredsson hits the drums with no remorse showing very good skills. My favourite song is “Apocalypse Showtime”, the fastest one. All in all this is a band to have in sight, clearly in progress, but right now demonstrating good quality and intentions. The future will tell, but I think this newcomers could do very good things if they carve their own destiny in music, creating something a bit more different and original. Time is in their hands, open wide is their future...
| Tracklist |
| 1. Tied, Torn And Twisted |
| 2. My Shining Star |
| 3. Apocalypse Showtime |
| 4. Stranger |
: 16.55
| Buy other Avatar albums |
