Avatar - The Dirt I’m Buried In

Let it be proclaimed straight up, it is spectacularly difficult to pick an Avatar song to feature. Genre is a wish word for the weak and afraid, says they, so you’ve really no idea what you’re getting, even from one album. Melodic death metal? Maybe. Industrial? Always a possibility. Sea shanty-inspired folk metal? There’s basically a whole album of that! The entire Avatar bit seems to be having as much fun as it’s possible to have wearing whatever you find in the bins around the back of King Diamond’s house. Which, honestly, is an ethos that a whole hell of a lot more musicians in the scene could do with paying attention to. Not hanging about around King Diamond’s house, though. Sure, he’s getting on a bit, but I still wouldn’t mess with him on home turf.

In terms of bands aging gracefully or otherwise, Avatar are starting to show plenty of rings if you cut them in half as well. The Swedes have taken their time to build up to where they are today, with twenty years of rotation - some members leaving, coming back, and leaving again - to find a lineup that stuck, and boy has it. Their massively varying output has hardly slowed them down, either, with ten studio albums and a Billboard Number One tacked onto their very impressive resume, even despite refusing to pick a lane. What, The Dirt I’m Buried In is that very same Billboard Number One hit I just mentioned? What a coincidence!

And with that incredibly natural and subtle segue out of the way, we invite you to take this Rock Song of the Week pick, slather yourself in your nearest tin of white grease-based face paint, and headbang like you’re trying to shake off a superglued toupee. We’d do it too, but all of our grease-based face paint was lost in the tragic fire of ’07, when we tried to set the world record for most people dressed like members of KISS in one place. We had three before the room went up in flames; we’d like to see anyone try to beat that.