Avatarium - The Girl With The Raven Mask

[Aamon]

Leider entäuscht das neue Album doch a bisserl...

Ich freu mich trotzdem auf das Live-Konzert. Das wird wohl genial werden.

METALPRESSE-ALBUM-KRITIK: http://metalpresse.com/review/avatarium ... aven-mask/

[Ger-Hard]

Leider entäuscht das neue Album doch a bisserl...

Ich freu mich trotzdem auf das Live-Konzert. Das wird wohl genial werden.

METALPRESSE-ALBUM-KRITIK: http://metalpresse.com/review/avatarium ... aven-mask/

Unter Konzerte konnte ich nur das Avatarium Konzert in Essen finden

Jedenfalls heute in Wien mit den Icelandern Vintage Caravan als Support!

Hier ist die geplante Running Order! Alle Angaben natürlich ohne Gewähr, weil es kurzfristig zu Änderungen kommen kann.

Einlass: 19.30 Uhr
Honeymoon Disease: 20.00 Uhr
The Vintage Caravan: 20.50 Uhr
Avatarium: 22.10 Uhr

Mit dem neuen Album habe ich auch so meine Probleme, natürlich auch sehr gut, aber leider nicht mehr...

[Aamon]

hast sie live gesehen dann?

[Aamon]

Die neue Avatarium Avatarium – Hurricanes and Halos taugt mir überhaupt nicht. 2 coole Songs sind nur drauf...

[Erik Blutaxt]

Aha, neuer Candlemass Song anfang 2018.
Am 29. September sind Avatarium ja wieder im Viper Room in Wien zu Gast.

LEIF TELLS THE BACKGROUND OF AVATARIUMS 'HURRICANES AND HALOS'
Not many gigs in connection with “Girl with the Raven Mask” unfortunately. Even though the album is absolutely great, it lacked live support. I don’t exactly know why this is, but it should definitely have been many more festivals booked for such an album.
But the reviews were super! Fans and press loved it with 4/5 stars reviews + Soundcheck wins all over the place. German Metal Hammer, Rock Hard etc etc etc. On the continent that is. For some reason the reception here in Sweden was a bit lukewarm. Mainly 3 stars, some 4’s. Strange. Perhaps the Swedish press have a hard time separating me from Candlemass? That’s my analysis of it anyway.
Seems like the rock n metal journalists abroad have a more open approach when it comes to me and my writing outside Candlemass. Can’t see it any other way. But I don’t really care to honest. “G.W.T.R.M.” got so much appreciation from all over the globe it keeps me warm anyway ! Even won the “Newcomber Award” at the German Metal Hammer Awards in Berlin. Marcus and Jennie walked the black carpet!!
So instead of live gigs we decided to make an album/the follow up, really quick. I had an idea about going towards more old school hard rock like Mountain, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Hendrix. I love all that old shit and so does Marcus so we decided to go organ-ic this time hehe.
We booked a day in the Ghost Ward studio last Sep just to jam some of my new ideas.
I felt it was necessary to jam the riffs live with an organ, and since Avatarium didn’t have a rehearsal room back then, why not jam for a day in a studio and record the session?J Turned out to be a totally brilliant day! It was me and Marcus, Carl on the organ, Lars behind the drums + the new bassplayer Mats Rydström. We had a blast!! Nobody had heard a note of the new material so we just played for hours, had some band fun! Jennie was also there, listened...felt the vibe. Great day!
Out of that session we got most of “Out of the Storm/Into the Fire”, “The Sky at the Bottom of the Sea”, the main riff from “A.K.F.T.E.O.T.W.”, a bit of “Starless Sleep” and also half of “Medusa Child”. We jammed on other stuff as well but this is what we used from that session.
Unfortunately this was the last time my good friend Carl Westholm played with Avatarium. He wanted to be able to focus more on his prog unit Carp Tree + have the time to write and play more of his own music. I miss him on this record but life is life, and things are what they are. (Later on during the “Hurricanes n Halo’s” sessions Rickard Nilsson stepped in)
So, instead of the usual way of making an Avatarium album, where I brought my songs over to Marcus studio to record a quick demo, we instead jammed for a day on my ideas.
I thought it was the right way of doing it this time because of a sometimes pretty dominating organ. I’m sure Uriah Heep and Deep Purple didn’t try out songs without Ken Hensley or Jon Lord Would only sound weak with something missing, hehe…
With these songs we just needed the the full shabang incl a distorted Leslie!
After this very electric session we moved back to Marcus studio to finalize the songs.
Breaking them up, putting them together again. Working on arrangements. Adding the vocals, background harmonies etc. The album came together quite nicely and pretty fast this time around! Also keeping some live feeling to it here and there!
Marcus and Jennie wrote “Road to Jerusalem” and “When Breath turns to Air”. Two compositions that fits the album perfectly I think. They balance up my Purple/Heep/BÖC songs, adds atmosphere, dynamics. “Road to Jerusalem” is a bit Zeppelin with a nice ending part to it. “When Breath turns to Air” is just beautiful in some late 60’s, early 70’s bluesy/jazzy style with great vocals by Jennie. Nice work!
I also have to mention that I’m not a member of Avatarium anymore. My doctors have said absolutely NO to me for work with more than one band at the time. They did not like it when I did The Doomsday Kingdom album at the same time as C-mass “Death Thy Lover” and they are always right of course. As a result of this I had another breakdown not long after DTL was ready.
I’m now working on a new song with Candlemass. It will see the light of day early 2018. It will be a part of something bigger, something really cool that will take C-mass on another adventure. This will be very exciting + a new challenge for me as a songwriter!
I will still be working with Avatarium in the future. Marcus and Jennie are good friends so I hope that “Hurricanes and Halos” will get the success it deserves. I’m quite sure of it.
The reviews this far have all been mindblowing! (the ones outside of Sweden anyway hahaha!) So when the next one is due, I will definitely be contributing!
So where is THE DOOMSDAY KINGDOM in all this, you wonder? Simple answer: there will definitely be another TDK album. Next year or the year after that. Promise!
Leif Edling (Sep 2017)