Album Review: Dance Devil Dance by Avatar (Black Waltz Records)

The heavy metal, dark, madcap visionaries, collectively known as Avatar, have emerged from deep within the Swedish forest ready to unleash their latest album, Dance Devil Dance, on the 17th of February.

Speaking about Dance Devil Dance, vocalist Johannes Eckerström states:

“I woke up to the truth one day. With my heart pounding, and a heavy breath, I knew for sure. I am Satan. The snake and forbidden fruit with a longing for knowledge, freedom and agency. My feet were moving. I thought I was running, but I was dancing. A celebration. Yes, I am the Devil, and I believe that one day you can be the Devil too. It is my hope and ambition that this album will help you find your way there. As such, it’s a celebration of love, lust and democracy.”

Dance Devil Dance follows the band’s masterful 2020 album, Hunter Gatherer but this is not a band that stand still for long so they have been immensely busy in those years. From 2021’s online streaming event, Avatar Ages, multiple tours (once tours became a thing again) including a headline tour of North America. They also embarked on some of the biggest shows of their career with shows supporting none other than Iron Maiden, in stadiums in Brazil. Avatar also played arenas supporting Sabaton and secured major festival appearances globally with INKcarceration, Cadott Fest, Summer Breeze, and Bloodstock.

Dance Devil Dance was recorded in the Swedish wilderness, far away from all the perceived glamour of the big city and modern studios. Jay Ruston, (Anthrax, Mr. Bungle, Crobot, Stone Sour, Amon Amarth, Uriah Heep), returned as producer. He first worked with the band when he mixed Hail the Apocalypse, a role he reprised on Feathers & Flesh before taking the wheel as producer on Avatar Country and Hunter Gatherer. No extra personnel were wanted nor needed. They stayed together for a month, eating, sleeping, and breathing Dance Devil Dance, just the six of them.

Never lacking in confidence, the band state:

“You always hear bands say, ‘This is our best album yet.’ This is our best album yet. It is Avatar at our most laser-focused, at our most razor sharp. There’s no BS, no extra fat. Every track is a weapon and has a purpose. It’s all in the title, as this album is our angriest, horniest, and most spiritual release, all at once. It’s a must-hear.

We are a metal circus. The road is our home. Dance Devil Dance mirrors all the madness of this world and worlds beyond. It’s celebration of the ugly and a challenge in the face of all things deemed beautiful. Metal should make you move. Metal is music for the body. We don’t know when it happened but it seems that at some point recently, most of the world decided that this music was best enjoyed sitting down. This is a great tragedy and it must be rectified. Why have drums, why have bass, if people don’t move their feet?

Avatar is Johannes Eckerström on vocals, Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström on guitars, Henrik Sandelin on bass and John Alfredsson on drums.

Dance Devil Dance comes with 11 tracks on it and, as is now the way, we have already heard 4 tracks, released as singles in the build up to the album release. That includes the album opener, title track  and introduction to this latest phase of Avatar with the song Dance Devil Dance. It comes with plenty of familiarity – infectious beats and riffs, a simple and effective chorus and neat soloing while Johannes showcases his overload of vocal talent with growled verses, soaring choruses and everything in between. I listened to Dance Devil Dance and didn’t ever feel like I was hearing Avatar do something they hadn’t done before, it felt comfortable and it felt “Avatar”. A band that trademark in catchiness and ear worms, delivering a track that will stick in your head for days and demand replays.

I think that is a clever way to bring fans of the band onboard with the new cycle, a song that doesn’t alienate them with some radical change of direction, instead a gentle evolution but with plenty of familiarity. Chimp Mosh Pit on the other hand sees the band mix things up a bit with the vocals hitting some stretching highs within a bed of groove based metal. It’s quite a strange song in terms of flow and structure. There are a lot of cool elements – the drums and chunky riffing works well and of course the vocals are impressive. The solo is really neat, but doesn’t feel exactly like it belongs with the rest of the song and it’s sudden end feels, well, sudden. It’s interesting though, but just might require a but more replaying or a live showing for me to fully get it.

Valley of Disease is another single that has been out a long while. A song that drips of darkness with thick and meaty riffing, pummelling drums and demonic vocals in the verses. It’s a banger, a proper mosh pit filling headbanger of a track. That Avatar styled cleaner chorus comes in anthemic form with a glorious little melodic touch from the guitars. The small effect breaks bring back thoughts of Colossus and work really well in setting the song up for an explosion back into the crunchy metal. It’s an instant Avatar hit that should be absolutely phenomenal live.

We make our way out of the dark and vermin filled Valley of Disease and head to On the Beach. Carrying on the style of the album so far, we have kind of gone familiar, different, familiar and we are back to different here again. It’s amazing that Avatar have formed such a strong identity in vocals and general style that despite this song doing everything it possibly can to throw me off scent, it is so unmistakably Avatar. It’s also a little mental, chucking a ton of ideas and contrasting styles into the mix and coming out with something that manages to be incredibly catchy and incredibly Avatar.

From the seagull effects at the start we jump into a crunchy riff with lashings of bass and vicious vocals. The transition from that into clean vocals and a poppier style is so very odd and so very wonderful. The solo is mind boggling, going through multiple phases that turn from beach cabana gentile through to a crunchy pit killer then through to a thrashy ripper and finally a wicked dual guitar melodic harmonised stunner. Back to the chorus that will never leave my head and we close out on gentle melody that has that sort of music box sound. It’s a wonderful track, so clever and showing Avatar at their slightly insane but creative best.

We carry on with the brand new unheard stuff with Do You Feel in Control and Gotta Wanna Riot. Two more tracks that keep the listener on their toes as the waves of ingenuity keep coming hard. The former hits particularly hard with some filthy riffing and intense rhythm sections in what is one of the more straightforward metal tracks on the album. An easy to follow, simple rocking song. The latter mixing it up with some really catchy vocal passages and a classic rock vibe. The drums punch hard though and the flow of the track is superb. The vocals run through every style, tone and pitch imaginable culminating in a sing along chorus and a wicked solo.

Dance Devil Dance continues with the single The Dirt I’m Buried In. Another song that has been out for a while and, as I am sure we all know already, it’s a wonderful, eccentric beast of a song that appears to combine a bit of 80’s disco with Avatar’s harder rock sound. It’s a stunner that gets better and better with each play. Back to the new tracks we go as we head into the final third of the album. Clouds Dipped In Chrome comes first as Avatar go for the jugular in a ferocious melodeath track. The vocals are intense with a thick and murky bassy riff dripping over everything. Aside from some vocal gymnastics by Johannes part way through, the song just goes for the kill from the off and doesn’t let up.

Hazmat Suit keeps the speed and aggression at the forefront in a raucous number that manages to be absolutely drenched in catchiness. That guitar melody in the verses is a winner and the chorus is another one that is going to stick in your head for days and days. So we reach the penultimate track titled Train. A special track that toys with your senses. An initial flurry of drums and guitars quickly descends into a dark and sombre melodic number that gives me Johnny Cash vibes. The soft and subtle verse closes into a vicious and powerful chorus before suddenly falling away back into the devilish blues again. Genius.

And so Dance Devil Dance reaches it’s conclusion and in typical Avatar style, they like to end with a punch. This time also with some additional spice courtesy of Lzzy Hale of Halestorm fame adding vocals to the mix. I don’t have a lot of interest in Halestorm but I do think Lzzy Hale’s vocals compliment Johannes here with the initial verse in particular standing out where Johannes delivers a line and it is quickly backed by Lzzy. That sounds great but, the end of the song drags a little with the same repeated line for the best part of a minute. It works in it almost becomes chant like, but not enough that I could see myself continuing to listen to the whole of the last minute in future plays.

The song is too good to not listen to the rest of it but I can imagine myself getting 20 seconds into the minute and then skipping back to start Dance Devil Dance again.

And so the latest offering from this brilliant, slightly mad, trail blazing band closes out and my most prominent thought is “these guys never let me down”. It’s no secret that I have a lot of admiration for this band having become a bit of a superfan over the last 5 years having slept on them for the years prior to that. Being a big fan of a band doesn’t mean they get a free pass when it comes to releasing music though, if anything, it makes it harder.

If you love a band, the nervousness of listening to an album and being desperate for it to be great is intense. It just seems that with Avatar, despite those anxieties before starting an album, they never let me down and just reaffirm my belief that Avatar are one of the greatest bands of our generation and if you don’t believe that, it is probably just because you haven’t realised it yet, in the same way it took me years to understand the same.

Dance Devil Dance is not without fault though with, for me, the ending of Violence No Matter What dragging a little and I’m still not sold on Chimp Mosh Pit entirely. Minor missteps that take no enjoyment out of an album that overall oozes class and creativity. Feeling like an evolution of Avatar, not a revolution, Dance Devil Dance delivers an immense punch of excitement and exhilaration throughout. A breathless assault on the senses, jam packed with creativity and variety, with riffs for days and hooks that embed themselves deep into your very being. It makes you feel alert and involved, it makes you want to get out of your seat and move. It makes you want to Dance, Devil, Dance!

Avatar will release Dance Devil Dance on the 17th of February. Grab your copy of this wonderful album from the band, here and make sure you add the album on your chosen streaming platform.

Avatar are also on tour this month hitting multiple venues in the UK and Europe. Grab tickets from here.

Avatar Links

Website – Merch – Facebook – Instagram – Twitter – TikTok – YouTube – Spotify – Apple Music