AVATAR are closing out 2026 with a holiday song of their own. The Swedish band have released "Naughty List", a festive single with an official video and a guest guitar solo from Zakk Wylde.
The collaboration came about on the road: guitarist Tim Öhrström asked Wylde to play on the track while both were supporting METALLICA on the European leg of the "M72" tour this summer.
Johannes Eckerström says the song flips the idea of Santa's list: "The idea is that the 'Naughty List' is full of people who are different rather than bad, and someone needs to have their backs, too. It is a song about forgiveness and acceptance, and doing what is actually the right thing to do, rather than just following the norm."
The single lands just after the first anniversary of the band's tenth album, Don't Go In The Forest, released on Halloween 2025 and produced again by Jay Ruston. Earlier this year AVATAR also issued the standalone single "Crying Fire", a track from the same sessions that they chose to keep off the album.
AVATAR are finishing 2026 with a European headline tour and head to Latin America in January 2027. In summer 2027 they rejoin METALLICA for the North American stadium run of the "M72" tour, alongside LIMP BIZKIT.
Eckerström formed AVATAR in Gothenburg in 2001. The lineup — Eckerström, guitarists Jonas Jarlsby and Tim Öhrström, bassist Henrik Sandelin and drummer John Alfredsson — has barely changed since, with Öhrström the latest arrival a little over a decade ago.