Swedish heavy metal ‘n’ roll dark madcap visionaries collectively known as AVATAR — vocalist Johannes Eckerström (vocals), guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson — are ambitious rock sorcerers of the highest order. They are known to smash the boundaries between band, theater troupe, and cinematic masterminds with a series of celebrated albums and videos, and the immersive world of Avatar Country, a fantastical land where metal rules supreme. Today, the band has dropped another track called “Construction of Souls.” Stream it below.
“This song will be to Christmas songs what ‘Die Hard’ is to Christmas movies,” the band says. “It wasn’t intended to be that, but ultimately, it makes a lot of sense. It’s about us — meaning the robots taking over the great human project of our ancestors, building our way out of the planet on sandy soils, saturated with the withering bones of our ancestors.”
The track is being released together with a children’s book portraying the “not very child-friendly everyday life” in Santa’s workshop in the parallel universe of AVATAR. The book will be available on Sunday, November 28. Get it here.
Earlier this fall, AVATAR went big and dropped three new tracks. They shared the official video for “Going Hunting”, directed once again by Johan Carlén, alongside the fan track “Barren Cloth Mother”, plus the visualizer clip for “So Sang the Hollow.” AVATAR also previously announced that it signed to Thirty Tigers and launched its own Black Waltz Records imprint.
Two weeks ago, AVATAR postponed the last five shows on its “Going Hunting” U.S. tour after Eckerström tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Those concerts will now take place in late January and early February.
