INTERVIEW: AVATAR IN CONVERSATION WITH JOHANNES ECKERSTRÖM
Interview by Cecilia Pattison-Levi
Swedish metal giants Avatar are coming to Australia to play at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane. The band’s tour will focus on their brilliant melodic Swedish heavy metal album ‘Don’t Go In The Forest’. Avatar’s enigmatic vocalist Johannes Eckerström was generous with his time as he discussed the creation of ‘Don’t Go In The Forest’, writing songs like ‘Crying Fire’ and touring alongside Metallica over the 2026 European summer in an interview with No Barriers.
Sweden is producing some of the most inventive heavy metal musicians on the planet. The small, stunningly beautiful country has many multi-talented individuals who create some of the most incendiary heavy metal music in the world. Avatar is one of those bands. They originally formed in Gothenburg in 2001 and have been through many changes over their 25 years in the music industry. The band consists of Johannes Eckerström (vocals), Jonas Jarlsby (guitar), Tim Öhrström (guitar), Henrik Sandelin (bass) and John Alfredsson (drums), and they are focus on writing heavy music that blends melodic death metal with big grooves and alternative metal.
“We don’t want to keep writing the same album over and over,” stated Johannes Eckerström. “As a band, we want to innovate. We have many songwriters and the way we operate as a band is like a flowing band. It’s not super clear where things start. For this record, we wanted more exploration of sound and lyrics. We wanted to be moreintuitive and there was less and less filtering. That takes some balls to do. You have to grow over the years, you know, with vulnerability being a big part of it, you know, maturing over time.”
“What was great about writing a new record,” explained Johannes Eckerström, “was that we had so many songs. We trusted our subconscious and dreams to help bring this album together. When the album was finished, the band realised that we had this song called ‘Hunter Gatherer’ at that stage. It had this cool riff, but the drums were wrong. Then, after the album was released, we got together and returned to our heavy metal principles and the drum groove came and the song started to write itself. ‘Crying Fire’ leans into sadness but with high-energy, and we have not done anything like that before.”
There’s so much depth to Avatar. There have been a lot of attempts to describe Avatar’s particular brand of metal: is it progressive, industrial or theatrical? These descriptions are reductive.
“What is important to Avatar is trusting the instrumentation like the screaming of guitars and the screaming of the drums, and really focusing on, you know, bringing the lyrics forward, that’s going deeper inside and using my vocals in the best way,” said Johannes Eckerström
Avatar are planning to do just that! They have just announced a huge 2026 autumn headline tour of the United Kingdom and Europe. They are also fresh off the Metallica M7 Tour in Europe, where the band was praised by fans and Metallica for their amazing live performances. Now, Avatar are about to tour here.
“It will be our second time performing in Australia. We have to show that our live gigs weren’t a fluke,” mused Johannes Eckerström. “Being with Metallica raised the bar for us. They taught us so much, like how to be an opener. We were very good at playing smaller venues and making the live performance experience feel big. But stadium shows are next level. You need to put on a big performance and make it feel small in these huge venues. Avatar also got on that tour as an independent band with our independent label. It’s the independent Avatar that landed the Metallica gig.”
“We are going to bring that new independent Avatar with our ‘Don’t Go In The Forest’ intensity to the live shows in Australia,” Johannes Eckerström declared. “We are the band that says, If you are one of those weird kiddos that is attracted to metal music, and you’re one of those who goes, ‘‘I’m totally going into the forest, then our live show will intrigue you. It’s an invitation to explore the unknown.”
Avatar bring their ‘Don't Go In The Forest’ tour and the dates and venues listed below:
Wednesday, 26th August 2026 at the Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
Friday, 28th August 2026 at theNorthcote Theatre, Melbourne
Saturday, 29th August 2026 at the Manning Bar, Sydney
Sunday, 30th August 2026 at the Princess Theatre, Brisbane
