Avatar - Dance Devil Dance

Tracklist:

Dance Devil Dance

Chimp Mosh Pit

Valley of Disease

On the Beach

Do You Feel in Control?

Gotta Wanna Riot

The Dirt I'm Buried In

Clouds Dipped in Chrome

Hazmat Suit 

Train

Violence No Matter What (Duet with with Lzzy Hale)

Welcome back to the Circus! Swedish metal band Avatar are back with album number 9 and I’m very keen to see what they’ve got in store for us this time.

Album opener and album title track “Dance Devil Dance” is a steady, crispy and crunchy little strange sounding tones, elements of power metal and more aggressive metal coming together, beautifully at that. “Chimp Mosh Pit” is very quirky but that drop in riff towards the end is diiiirty and twangs itself round your face, they’ve really come into their own and combined so many cool different elements from genres to really cement their freak show vibe. “Valley of Disrase” is one of my favourites they have on this album, it’s got great growls and screams backed by thick slick riffs and bass but then in the chorus it’s stepped back to be smooth and melodic which has an arena feel to it. “The Dirt I’m Buried In” is absolutely stunning, the way they make such an upbeat sounding song with such a solemn subject matter is incredible, it’s a similar story with “Train” which is more like a Rob Zombie ballad. They even got Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale for “Violence No Matter What” and she really got herself invested in the Avatar style for this, so mad respect to her for that. This is my favourite album of all that Avatar have created so far, I love the vibe and the versatility and so feel like it’s time for them to really move into the spotlight and bask in it.

[9/10]

Review by Jay