After sailing high and charmingly freaky seas with shanty-metal single “Captain Goat” earlier in the year, Swedish metal vets Avatar are now going in a more streamlined, strafing and thrashy direction for their latest track, “In the Airwaves.”
A press release finds the band explaining in a joint statement that Avatar are “defined by the challenges we put in front of ourselves.” When it comes to this latest single, the challenge was to “return to one of the most important aspects of metal: Speed.”
“This is the fastest song we have done in what seems to be an eternity, and it feels good to push the engine to the max again,” they wrote, adding, “In a way, it feels like a return to something. Enjoy our rage.”
With that in mind, Avatar definitely shy away from the boat-rocking, three-quarter swing of “Captain Goat” to instead harness a back-breaking, whip-cracking pace and a ton of jud-tastic riffs. Vocalist Johannes Eckerström gets extra growly for much of the cut, but brings a dash of melody to the chorus when he beckons us to follow the sound of his voice.
You can catch Avatar’s thrashy onslaught up above in a video that mixes freeze-frame performance stills of the band with some psychedelically strobing visuals.
As previously reported, Avatar hit the U.S. next fall for a headline tour. The month-long trip begins in early November, and finds Avatar supported by New Zealand trio Alien Weaponry and deathwestern renegades SpiritWorld. Those tour dates can be found here
Avatar’s international touring schedule — which includes 2026 concert dates with Metallica — can be found here.