AVATAR releases new standalone single 'Crying Fire'
05-06-2026
Swedish metallers AVATAR have released a new standalone single “Crying Fire”. The band intentionally withheld the track and decided to strike when the time was right.
Watch “Crying Fire” below.
Vocalist Johannes Eckerström explains: “‘Crying Fire’ is very special to all of us. It was written and recorded as part of the ‘Don’t Go In The Forest’ [album] sessions. When making the final selection for album tracks, this one was a given. But then we started asking ourselves something: ‘What if we saved the best for later? What if we kept this gem away from the world for a while?'”
Following a monumental summer that sees AVATAR supporting METALLICA on their global juggernaut and lighting up some of Europe’s most iconic festival stages before heading Down Under to Australia, the Swedish theatrical metal titans are ready to end the year on their own terms. AVATAR are thrilled to announce a headline tour across Europe this late autumn 2026.
AVATAR lead singer Johannes Eckerström says: “A Europe in November. A Europe in December. Cold, wet and dark. We all know what it’s like, and we know exactly what you’ll need. The first European leg made us feel very lucky to be doing this. This time around, we will do everything within our power to make you feel lucky to participate. We live by but one ethos: Better than ever. I really want to see you, and you really don’t want to miss this.”
The tour kicks off on November 20 in Wolverhampton, U.K. and runs through until December 19 in Wrocław, Poland. The Danish death metal band NECKBREAKKER will be support on all dates. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, May 26 at 10 a.m. local time from avatarmetal.com.
AVATAR‘s “Don’t Go In The Forest ’26” tour dates:
Nov. 20 – Wolverhampton, England – KK’s Steelmill
Nov. 21 – Southampton, England – O2 Guildhall
Nov. 22 – Cardiff, Wales – Depot
Nov. 24 – Dublin, Ireland – National Stadium
Nov. 25 – Belfast, N.Ireland – Limelight
Nov. 27 – Norwich, England – UEA
Nov. 28 – Newcastle, England – Northumbria Uni
Nov. 29 – Edinburgh, Scotland – Corn Exchange
Dec. 01 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Gashouder
Dec. 03 – Oberhausen, Germany – Turbinenhalle
Dec. 05 – Budapest, Hungary – Barba Negra Red
Dec. 06 – Prague, Czechia – Sasazu
Dec. 08 – Innsbruck, Austria – Musichall
Dec. 09 – Linz, Austria – Posthof
Dec. 10 – Ulm, Germany – Roxy
Dec. 11 – Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg – Rockhal
Dec. 12 – Zürich, Switzerland – Komplex
Dec. 13 – Frankfurt, Germany – Zoom
Dec. 15 – Padova, Italy – Hall
Dec. 16 – Ljubljana, Slovenia – Cvetlicarna
Dec. 17 – Zagreb, Croatia – Boogaloo
Dec. 18 – Bratislava, Slovakia – Majestic Music Club
Dec. 19 – Wrocław, Poland – A2
AVATAR released its tenth studio album, “Don’t Go In The Forest”, last October via Black Waltz Records. The follow-up to 2023’s “Dance Devil Dance” was once again produced by Jay Ruston, who has previously worked with ANTHRAX, STEEL PANTHER and URIAH HEEP, among many others.
Watch “Death And Glitz”, previously shared the songs “Captain Goat”, “In The Airwaves” and “Tonight We Must Be Warriors” below.
Speaking about “Don’t Go In The Forest” as a whole, Eckerström offers: “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.”
He concludes: “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.”
In an interview with Nic and Big J of the Boise, Idaho radio station 100.3 The X Rocks, Eckerström stated about AVATAR‘s upcoming LP: “It’s our tenth album. That’s a high number, and I don’t think many bands on purpose would phone it in at this point. But I think certainly there’s a risk of taking things for granted. And maybe just looking at the trip that we had to make to make this album and to have it make sense making an album, it can be harder and therefore more important than ever the further you go to find a reason, why is this important to us right now? Why does this one matter to us? Why does it matter to us to get to do another one? What do we wanna put on there that we are really passionate about right here right now? And I think we nailed that.
“I’m trying to think about the different songs and different directions it goes,” Johannes continued. “There are all these things that we haven’t done before. I get to pretend that I’m Elton John, meaning that I’ve been playing a bit of piano. But now I get to do it while drums are being played, so I feel I’m in the band — finally, after all these years, I’m in the band. So that’s something. And work with outside musicians for stuff, orchestral things and all that, taking that to the next level. I don’t think this is a prog album, really, but some of our most clearly progressive parts ever are probably on this album.
“An ethos I had for a while, a mantra almost going around was when writing to make the choices and also about what to write and stuff is just trust what’s beautiful,” he explained. “‘Cause I believe the subconscious speaks whatever needs to actually say that might not make sense at the given moment when you’re doing it, but if you find it beautiful as you create it, once upon revisiting, it’s very likely to mean exactly what it needed to mean. So there’s a dream factor to this album, letting the subconscious speak through imagery that I picked up in dreams. There’s a surrealness to it, therefore. And all these groovy, lofty words being said on something that is between 40 and 45 minutes of kick-ass heavy metal and hopefully always with ambition forever and ever and ever when it’s AVATAR that it’s songs that you haven’t heard yet.”
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