Face paint at the ready: Swedish theatrical metallers Avatar are hauling their Don't Go in the Forest tour to Australia.
It has been three years since Avatar last toured here, and the Gothenburg outfit are back with five shows across Australia and New Zealand. The run is built around the band’s tenth studio album, which shares its name with the tour.
The Australian visit lands on a strong run of form. Dance Devil Dance topped the iTunes rock and metal albums chart and reached number six across all genres. Don’t Go in the Forest, released late in 2025, keeps the crushing riffs and big hooks while pushing into darker, more psychological ground.
Avatar
- 26 August: Adelaide, Lion Arts Factory (all ages)
- 28 August: Melbourne, Northcote Theatre
- 29 August: Sydney, Manning Bar
- 30 August: Brisbane, Princess Theatre
- 1 September: Auckland, Powerstation
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
From Gothenburg death metal to the sideshow
Avatar formed in Mölndal, just south of Gothenburg, in 2001, and spent their early years working in melodic death metal.
The look most people know came later. Around the turn of the 2010s, vocalist Johannes Eckerström reinvented himself as a face-painted ringmaster leading a band of jesters. That character, billed on this run as the Clown, anchors a show the group stage as a sideshow rather than a straight gig.
The theatrics have always run alongside the music rather than replacing it, with the band’s death metal roots still audible under the spectacle. Filling out the line-up are guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson, most aboard for the long haul.
Don’t Go in the Forest
This is Avatar’s tenth full-length since a 2006 debut, with albums like Black Waltz, Hail the Apocalypse and the concept-driven Avatar Country marking the way. Across a career now past two decades, the ten records have taken the band from Swedish clubs to international stages.
Forest imagery runs through the whole campaign, from the album title to the band’s talk of the Clown leading fans deep into the woods. Recent singles Tonight We Must Be Warriors and Crying Fire give a sense of what the live set will draw on.
Doors, supports and set times for each show sit on the tour’s official pages alongside ticket links. Tickets for every date are on sale now.
For more information, head here.
