Review Summary: Even before their crooked fairground took shape, Avatar knew how to make good music.
The 2000’s were an interesting chapter in Avatar’s history. What’s currently known as a wacky troupe with a seemingly infinite supply of stylistic jokers up their sleeves, started off as a fairly typical instance of the Gothenburg melodic death metal sound, at least on paper. Their debut
Thoughts of No Tomorrow was an unrefined, yet surprisingly engaging shot at the style.
Black Waltz was the birthplace of Avatar’s aggressively theatrical antics, with the subsequent albums building upon that foundation and the preceding self-titled serving as a stumbling transition between the two ends of the spectrum. But before the signs of the shift started to show,
Schlacht came out. An album that instantly loses against its successors in terms of creativity, but as a trade it promises near-perfect consistency.
One of the biggest strengths of the current incarnation of Avatar is their songwriting trickery. There’s a skill to fusing a vast array of styles and moods (power metal, country and dance music, to name a few) with enough focus to keep from sounding scattershot, in spite of occasional stumbles.
Schlacht offers an opposite approach – it’s thoroughly enjoyable without straying from the path of standard melodic death metal. Or maybe not so standard? The album technically belongs to the genre, but focuses on its melodic aspect noticeably more; the songs are relatively slow-paced and often have an anthemic tinge to them. Another thing are the vocals. They are mostly high-pitched shouts reminiscent of Rob Halford rather than typical death metal spewings, which gives them a desperate and sort of frantic edge. It’s interesting to hear an early form of what, with more control applied, would shine in parts of “Avatar Country” and “Dance Devil Dance” years later. However, Johannes shows a more extreme side as well. His screaming technique has been refined since then, gaining a characteristic depth and power. What the screams of ’07 lack in these departments, they make up for with relentlessness and enough pitch changes to ensure a decent variety.
The opening title track is easily the least engaging part of the album. It’s decent but meddling, and its greatest merit is the short length. The next number is where the fun begins. “Wildflower” pretty much sets the tone for the record: a stable flow of bouncy rhythms, catchy harmonized riffs and energetic vocals.
Schlacht rarely deviates from this formula, but executes it competently and tosses a few treats into the fold. “All Hail the Queen” storms in with a commanding presence, urging the listener to bow down and obey to the titular figure. Looking at the lyrics, it’s more than likely about Sarah Kerrigan, which would make it a direct predecessor to the next album’s “Queen of Blades” in being based on the
StarCraft game franchise. “All Which Is Black” shows the band’s emotional potential with Johannes crying out: “Father, don’t take me home / let me stay in the light / where there’s no place for you”. “As It Is” is another example of that, even more so thanks to its restrained, melancholic verses transitioning into brutal choruses. I’ll say it’s one of the heaviest early tracks by Avatar and a definite highlight of that era.
Schlacht continues to deliver in the second half. “One/One/One/Three” brings the heat with its speed and what’s probably the flashiest chorus on the record. “Die with Me” is the longest song here in accordance with its apocalyptic theme. The narrator traverses an emotional parabola of grim personal observations, a moment of peace and the eventual descent into despair. This is mirrored by the song’s structure: it slows the pace in the middle and leaves us with mellow guitars to relieve the tension before it reignites. The following “The End of Our Ride” is also beautifully dark despite its much shorter runtime, although underneath the lyrical unrest lies a glimpse of positivity – “Try to read the movements / to save some lives / Try to laugh at moments/ when the stakes are too high to take on”. The album closes on a more grandiose note with “Letters from Neverend”. The piece also sticks out thanks to the guitar solo by In Flames’ Björn Gelotte, which brings a noticeably different flavour to the table.
A little earlier, “I Still Hate You” is the concise, aggressive Avatar at their best. The verses are boasting with fury and lead to an explosive chorus – Johannes exclaims his overbearing anger with just one line, after which a tense start-stop passage takes the spotlight. What also caught my attention are the lyrics. The fragment right before the first chorus – “Mirror, mirror on the wall / Say how deep just can I fall? / Until I cry or 'til I die / or 'til I sell my soul to hell” – seems like a hint of the wacky presence the band would eventually develop.
As much as I like the freakshow that Avatar’s music has been for well over a decade now, I have a soft spot for their melodeath origins. Of the three albums released during that period, I think this is the most accomplished one.
Schlacht doesn’t work because its masterful, varied or particularly original. It works because it makes the most of what it has at hand, keeping things consistently tight, catchy and energetic all throughout. And I suppose this applies to music at large – it doesn’t need to be mindblowing to be fun. Sometimes competence is just enough.
Highlights:
• As It Is
• All Hail the Queen
• I Still Hate You
• One/One/One/Three
• Die with Me
• The End of Our Ride
