Photo by: Johan Carlén
Official press release:
Consider this your fair warning, but whether you heed it or not will make all the difference!
The heavy metal visionaries collectively known as Avatar — vocalist Johannes Eckerström, guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin, and drummer John Alfredsson — are thrilled to announce the thoroughly fitting October 31st release of their latest masterwork Don’t Go In The Forest.
The band also shared the video for “Tonight We Must Be Warriors”. Watch it below. Pre-save the album here.
Vocalist Johannes Eckerström says regarding the release of single:
“It has become a necessity to me over the years to be able to answer one question: Why is this important? It can’t be just another album. We need to discover something, try something else. It has to come from the heart. What is being said matters.
In days of isolation and despair, maybe we need to be reminded that we are not alone? We are one of many. Maybe we also need a reminder that the burden is on our shoulders? To get it done, we need to do the fighting ourselves. In our shared pain, we find solidarity.”
Eckerström continues:
“The secret ingredient is that we still feel like we’re just getting started. Don’t Go In The Forest is an album filled to the brim with stuff we’ve never done before. It’s all songs and concepts we haven’t been close to touch until now. The mind is wild and we have lost ourselves in the darkest woods, filled with memories, and fantasies. Forbidden thoughts that must be spoken.
It would have been impossible to make this album at any other time than now. That’s all we ever wanted, and I think you’ll find it’s all you ever wanted too.”
The track listing for Don’t Go In The Forest will be revealed in due course. The band has previously shared “CAPTAIN GOAT” and “In the Airwaves”. Will you enter the forest via the new track?
Avatar have gone from strength to strength over the past several years. There’s the critically acclaimed, 2023-released album Dance Devil Dance, which included rock radio chart topper “The Dirt I’m Buried In”. Not to mention the scores of sold-out headline shows across the globe and having an actual fossil named after them. The list goes on and on. But the past is the past and the future is, well, dark in the best possible way and that’s JUST how Avatar like it!
So in true “Tonight We Must Be Warriors” style, Avatar will spend the foreseeable future (if not forever) on the road starting with the band’s biggest show EVER in Mexico City, followed by a huge headline tour in 2025/26 and then a summer tour supporting Metallica.
Back in April the band announced their A Night To Be Torn Apart headline tour, with Alien Weaponry as special guests, but have now rebranded the tour as In the Airwaves along with announcing additional support from Norwegian Feminist Black Metal group Witch Club Satan, as well as Norwegian Death Jazz band Agabas for select dates.
See below for a complete rundown of the band’s planned tour activity for the next two years.
2025 Mexico & USA Headline Tour:
10/31 Mexico City, MX — The Pepsi Center
11/05 Phoenix, AZ — The Van Buren
11/06 San Diego, CA — The Observatory San Diego
11/07 Riverside, CA — Riverside Municipal Auditorium
11/08 Las Vegas, NV — Brooklyn Bowl
11/10 Seattle, WA — Moore Theater
11/11 Portland, OR — Roseland Theatre
11/12 Boise, ID — Revolution
11/14 Salt Lake City, UT — The Union
11/15 Denver, CO — Fillmore
11/17 Minneapolis, MN — Fillmore
11/18 Madison, WI — The Sylvee
11/20 Detroit, MI — The Fillmore Detroit
11/21 Pittsburgh, PA — Stage AE
11/22 Columbus, OH — KEMBA Live!
11/23 Silver Spring, MD — The Fillmore Silver Spring
11/25 Huntington, NY — Paramount
11/26 Boston, MA — House of Blues
11/28 Allentown, PA — Archer Music Hall
11/29 Charlotte, NC — The Fillmore Charlotte
11/30 Louisville, KY — Old Forester’s Paristown Hall
12/02 Chicago, IL — Riviera Theater
12/04 Nashville, TN — Marathon Music Works
12/05 St. Louis, MO — The Pageant
12/06 Tulsa, OK — Tulsa Theater
12/07 Dallas, TX — House of Blues
2026 European Headline Tour:
2/05 Stockholm, SE — Fållan
2/07 Helsinki, FI — Kulttuuritalo
2/09 Oslo, NO — Sentrum Scene
2/10 Copenhagen, DK — Vega
2/11 Osnabrück, DE — Die Botschaft
2/12 Brussels, BE — A.B.
2/14 London, UK — Exhibition
2/15 Manchester, UK — Academy
2/16 Glasgow, UK — Barrowland
2/17 Nottingham, UK — Rock City
2/18 Bristol, UK — O2 Academy
2/20 Amsterdam, NL — AFAS Live
2/21 Esch-Sur-Alzette, LU — Rockhal
2/22 Zürich, CH — Komplex
2/24 Barcelona, ES — Razzmatazz
2/25 Madrid, ES — La Riviera
2/27 Lisbon, PT — LAV
2/28 Bilbao, ES — Santana 27
3/02 Lyon, FR — Le Cube
3/03 Milan, IT — Alcatraz
3/04 Vienna, AT — Gasometer
3/05 Munich, DE — Tonhalle
3/06 Cologne, DE — E-Werk
3/07 Paris, FR — Le Zenith
3/09 Wiesbaden, DE — Schlachthof
3/10 Zlin, CZ — Sports Hall Datart
3/11 Warsaw, PL — Stodola
3/12 Berlin, DE — Columbiahalle
3/13 Hamburg, DE — Docks
Supporting Metallica — Summer 2026:
5/24 Frankfurt, DE — Deutsche Bank Park
6/11 Budapest, HU — Puskas Arena
6/19 Dublin, IE — Aviva Stadium
7/05 London, UK — London Stadium