AVATARIUM, the Swedish metal project whose recording lineup includes Leif Edling, founding bassist and main songwriter of Swedish doom metal legends CANDLEMASS, will release its new album, “The Girl With The Raven Mask”, on October 23 via Nuclear Blast.
The lyric video for the title track, “Girl With The Raven Mask”, can be seen below.
Comments AVATARIUM guitarist Marcus Jidell: “It is an up-tempo hardrock/doom number with a very strong lyric made by Leif Edling about a little girl with a big raven head mask. The song asks questions like: Who is she and what did she experience? What is it that she doesn’t want us to see?”
Edling states about the CD: “I think we have created something unique this time with AVATARIUM. The songs are more written to be just songs and there are some really nice moments on the record that I personally love… the straightforward title track, the beautiful ‘January Sea’, the riff in ‘Ghostlight’ and the groove in ‘Run Killer Run’. The organ and the Rhodes piano are ridiculously loud in the mix at times; even Dr. Carl agrees [laughs], but i think it gives even more edge to the songs! I hope people will dig ‘The Girl With The Raven Mask’ as much as I do myself, and if they don’t, it’s their problem. A band can’t deliver more than we have done here, so it is an album close to perfection! When an album is perfect… shoot me!”
Jidell adds: “AVATARIUM have been taking another big step with this album and I can’t wait for people to hear the songs and to play them live on our tour in November!
“It has been a lot of work but also a great pleasure to be the producer of this album, I’m very happy with the result and I feel very proud to be a member of this powerful and talented band!”
“The Girl With The Raven Mask” track listing:
Digipack:
01. Girl With The Raven Mask
02. The January Sea
03. Pearls And Coffins
04. Hypnotized
05. Ghostlight
06. Run Killer Run
07. Iron Mule
08. The Master Thief
Bonus DVD (live at Hammer Of Doom festival in 2014):
01. Moonhorse
02. Bird Of Prey
03. All I Want
04. Tides Of Telepathy
05. Deep Well
06. Pandora’s Egg
07. Avatarium
CD
01. Girl With The Raven Mask
02. The January Sea
03. Pearls And Coffins
04. Hypnotized
05. Ghostlight
06. Run Killer Run
07. Iron Mule
08. The Master Thief
2LP
Side A:
01. Girl With The Raven Mask
02. The January Sea
Side B:
01. Pearls And Coffins
02. Hypnotized
Side C:
01. Ghostlight
02. Run Killer Run
Side D:
01. Iron Mule
02. The Master Thief
In a recent interview with Markus’ Heavy Music Blog, Jidell stated about AVATARIUM’s musical direction: “We all have a few bands in common that we like. But we also want to bring in our personalities into the music. The songs need to be ‘us.’ But it’s also the way Leif writes the songs. He’s thinking about my way of playing guitar and also about Jennie-Ann’s [Smith] vocals. He is thinking about how I could continue working on the songs and how Jennie-Ann could. Leif is a very clever songwriter. Another thing is the fact that Jennie-Ann puts so much effort and energy into the vocals. She wants those to become her own. She tries to put all the feelings and emotions into the songs.”
Asked if he is feeling any pressure trying to follow up AVATARIUM’s 2013 self-titled debut, Jidell said: “I don’t think like that. Of course there is a certain pressure if you get such a great response, but we try to focus in what we want to do. We try to be as good as we can while staying honest to ourselves and our music. Our aim is to do another great album followed by another great album and to be able to tour in between.”
AVATARIUM released a vinyl/digital-only EP, “All I Want”, on November 14, 2014 via Nuclear Blast.
Due to his health condition, Edling was unable to perform with AVATARIUM at the band’s recent gigs. Filling in for him was Anders Iwers from TIAMAT.
AVATARIUM’s self-titled debut album was released in Europe on November 1, 2013 via Nuclear Blast.
Source: Blabbermouth
