Swedish metal outfit AVATAR have released "Crying Fire," a new standalone single recorded during sessions for their tenth studio album Don't Go In The Forest (October 2025, Black Waltz Records) but withheld for a separate release. The track is out now.
Vocalist JOHANNES ECKERSTRÖM explained the decision to hold it back as deliberate: "Crying Fire" was considered too special to include in the album's sequencing, warranting its own moment. "I hear a relentless firestorm of emotions," he said. "It hits me in a deeply hidden place, and I hope it does the same for you."
Eckerström described the song's emotional core as an exploration of "enduring pain and loving passionately" — stopping short of overexplaining, preferring to let the music speak for itself.
"Crying Fire" connects directly to Don't Go In The Forest, the album AVATAR produced with JAY RUSTON — a longtime collaborator who mixed Hail The Apocalypse, mixed Feathers & Flesh, and produced both Avatar Country and Hunter Gatherer. The album followed 2023's Dance Devil Dance, which featured LZZY HALE of HALESTORM on "Violence No Matter What" and produced "The Dirt I'm Buried In" — a song that reached number one on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Airplay chart.
AVATAR's current lineup — Eckerström, guitarists JONAS JARLSBY and TIM ÖHRSTRÖM, bassist HENRIK SANDELIN, and drummer JOHN ALFREDSSON — has remained remarkably stable since the band's founding in 2001. Eckerström credits friendship as the foundation of their longevity: the group prioritizes creative authenticity and mutual respect over short-term commercial gains.
"Crying Fire" stands as another reminder that AVATAR's creative well runs deeper than any single album can contain.