LIVE(STREAM) REVIEW: Avatar @ Age Of Madness

To experience a state of madness is to either exhibit extremely foolish behaviour, or to enter a state of wild and chaotic activity. There’s often no blurring of the lines between sanity and insanity, you’re either slipping into madness or stable in your thoughts. You’re either Bruce Wayne or you’re the Joker, you can’t be both. For Sweden’s avant-garde metal troupe AVATAR, they’re the exception to the rule, as they highlight once more the madness they make during Night three of the Avatar Ages series (following Age of Dreams and Age Of Illusions), the aptly named Age of Madness. 

As with their previous evenings of entertainment throughout January, AVATAR tale a waltz through their back catalogue, this time running amok with a fan-curated setlist composed of songs solely from 2012’s Black Waltz and 2014’s Hail The Apocalypse. Arguably the album’s in their arsenal most likely to land themselves the title of ‘the turning point,’ Age Of Madness harks back to an era of the band that revelled in melding shock rock a la ROB ZOMBIE with the technical wizardry of extreme metal, all the while infusing those METALLICA meets AVENGED SEVENFOLD riffs you all want a slab of from time-to-time.

Just like Age of Dreams and Age of Illusions before it, Age of Madness takes place at Gothernburg’s Kajskjul 105 venue. Whilst the shifting sound stages the band first crafted their carnival of creativity on weeks ago felt like a refreshing take on a tried-and-tested livestream concept, here they feel somewhat stale, as the backdrops remain the same, and the gimmicks and gags they grapple with throughout the show aren’t nearly as slapstick as they should be if you were experiencing them for the first time. Considering they’ve got four streams across four weeks, you’d be forgiven for assuming they’d switch up the stage designs, especially when you’ve got albums as rich in world-building as Black Waltz. On the other hand, the band bring back the fan-favoured outfits of the era, putting the theatrical pomp firmly back in our proceedings where it belongs. 

There’s something about this stream that feels a little ‘been there, done that, got the t-shirt’ to it. Don’t get us wrong dead reader, the theatrics we’ve come to know and love from our favourite Swedes are all present – with one such highlight seeing vocalist Johannes Eckerström chasing drummer John Alfredsson across the different stages, and through the many doors of The Shining-esque corridor stage, before chucking him behind his drum kit to usher in Puppet Show. The problem is, is that they’re few and far between in comparison to Age of Illusions, and when they do come out in the open, they often echo what we’ve seen before. In a time where you can’t actually be in a sweaty room singing your heart out, there’s a newfound necessity to keep things fresher than ever before.

The plus side of stripping back the theatrics is that Age of Madness is the best AVATAR have sounded across all of the streams so far, and in some time even. By taking a step back, the band sound far more on form and on fire than usual, with some of the Black Waltz cuts like Torn Apart and Let It Burn sounding like they’re phoenixes rising from the ashes and reinventing themselves as brand new songs. However, the true highlight of it all is the tear-inducing heartbreaking piano edition of Hail The Apocalypse deep-cut Tower – a track that sets the comment section alight with streamers crying their hearts out to a version of a song they never thought they’d hear.

As with all of their streams, AVATAR are relishing the opportunity of offering out sets that shine a light on tracks they’ve left in the dark a little over the years, and Age of Madness is no different. An early-outing of Black Waltz’s incendiary thrasher In Napalm is an indulgent treat, as a track that hasn’t seen the light of day since 2015, whilst the devastating death metal delirium of Blod highlights just how heavy these Swedes can hit when they fancy it. As much as diving into the rarities and fan-favourites is fun, nothing beats live staples like Hail The Apocalypse and the sensational Paint Me Red. 

Whilst Age of Madness feels a little like they’re stepping backwards and stripping off the theatrics a little, it’s still a stream that shines the spotlight on a band playing two or three moves ahead of their peers at any point. As Johannes professes, they’re giving us madness, “because it might just be the best medicine there is – for when the world goes mad, we go madder.”

Rating: 7/10