Review Summary: The King Welcomes You to… a Great Album!
By this point in Avatar’s history, it’s already clear that the band is simply incapable of doing anything halfway. When they decided to turn a guitarist into an absolute monarch and build an entire nation around him, it was obvious the result would be an exaggerated, theatrical, and gloriously kitschy concept album. Avatar Country is exactly that: a fun, competent, and ridiculously self-committed record.
The idea behind Avatar Country didn’t come out of nowhere: the figure of “the king” had already appeared as a recurring reference in the band’s previous liner notes and imagery. According to Johannes Eckerström, the theme had been “leaking” out for a while and, motivated by a desire to challenge themselves creatively, they decided to turn that persona and iconography into a full concept album. The King, embodied by Jonas “Kungen” Jarlsby, becomes the center of a mythology that the band extends beyond the record — onto the stage and into their videos — in a full exercise of performance and celebration of the Avatar universe.
The great strength here is the atmosphere. The idea of “a kingdom ruled by riffs” works because Avatar embraces the cartoonish side of their identity without shame. “Glory to Our King” opens the album like a nerdy epic-movie fanfare (with a touch of Monty Python). “Legend of the King” is the album’s absolute epic: a mini-opera of nearly nine minutes that turns the King into a mythical hero inside a glorious fantasy world. “A Statue of the King” keeps the momentum with its blend of groove metal and epic grandeur; and “The King Welcomes You to Avatar Country” is exactly what the title promises — an over-the-top welcome, full of smiling guitars and a spirit that feels somewhere between Disneyland and AC/DC. And it’s yet another Avatar song that seems engineered for live shows.
A drawback of Avatar Country is that, despite its fun concept and sharp execution, the album ends up being too short: just over 31 minutes of actual music, which makes the experience feel less substantial than it could be. This brevity contrasts with the previous record, Feathers & Flesh, which was much longer and allowed for a deeper dive into the universe the band created. Not always "less is more".
True metalheads (always grumpy, always ready to defend the purity of metal like underpaid museum security guards) will no doubt roll their eyes at Avatar Country. They’ll say Avatar “jokes around too much”, that “metal isn’t a circus”, that a “serious band shouldn’t have this much fun.” I don't care. I admire it — and honestly, I think it’s hilarious.
In the end, Avatar Country is one of those albums you recommend with a smile on your face — it may not be brilliant, but it’s fantastic.
And I think the album’s final message (if it truly has one) to metal fans is: don’t take everything so seriously (not even heavy metal). Arrigo Sacchi (the Italian football coach) once said, “Football is the most important of the unimportant things.” Maybe we should approach metal the same way.
Long live the King.
Highlights:
“Legend of the King”
“A Statue of the King”
“The King Welcomes You to Avatar Country”
