Swedish death metal band Avatar were nine albums in before they recorded a duet and for that duet they chose Lzzy Hale of Halestorm to be their first.
Johannes Eckerström of Avatar tells Noise11.com, “This was the first time we did anything like a proper duet. It started with the song. People on our label would said that a duet is a good idea but we had never been able to do one of those”.
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Johannes said, “Tim (Öhrström) has written some amazing riffs. When I started to work on vocals the very first idea I came up with was is the thing it starts out with, the call and response. Then Henrik (Sandelin), our bass player, would have a lot to do, so I start ‘Simon & Garfunkling’ the rest of the song, harmonising all the way. This is a lot of singing for two people and I thought maybe this is the duet we never did. It was a very quick thought process of who would we like to have sing. Without having a name, I acknowledged Avatar is a God-damn sausage party. There are certain sounds, certain qualities that we are physically not able to do. Thinking, who’s singing do we like? Who do we respect? Who do we know? Lzzy (Hale) immediately jumped up to the top of that list”.
Lzzy was a perfect fit. “Avatar is a metal band first but there is a lot of rock and roll,” Johannes said. “In a similar sense Halestorm is a rock band first but they go heavy, they go hard, especially Lzzy as a singer. There is an overlap there. There is also the kinship, we as a band have been together for so long and we really grew up together. There is that brotherhood, that friendship. There is a connection between us that is even bigger than the band. It goes beyond that. Halestorm is exactly the same way. We have done a few shows together. There was no better choice really”.
Lzzy did not travel to Sweden for the recording. “She was at home in the U.S. and we recorded in the woods in Sweden,” Johannes said. “That was a great thing. We have had people help out on albums before. We had a pianist on the last one, we have had guest solo players and little things here and there, the electronic stuff. A lot of it, like orchestrations have been done by other people”.
Avatar will tour Australia for the very first time in August 2023.
TOUR DATES
Friday, August 25: 170 Russell, Melbourne
Saturday, August 26: The Metro, Sydney
Sunday, August 27: The Triffid, Brisbane
Tickets onsale Thursday, April 27 @ 9.00am
thephoenix.au
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