Avatar is a cool Swedish metal band that's beginning to break through here in the US with their song "The Eagle Has Landed", from the new album Feathers and Flesh. They're out on tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat, and we were lucky enough to get them into the studio to tell us funny stories! The guys are really funny.

The guys perform some songs acoustic for us, and we learn not only about the band and how they formed, but how all bands get together, and who plays which instrument:

"What happens with every band, is that two guys form a band. And that will be the drummer, also known as 'trust-fund kid', and a friend who gets to play guitar. And then the guitar player has another friend who also gets to be in the band, therefore he gets to play the other guitar. Now, all the cool instruments are taken. Then you find two more friends, and like, one who actually can play something, whatever it is, it could be the flute, he gets to be the bass player, and the poor kid that can't afford instruments is the singer."

When working on original music, they have some philosophies about not limiting themselves when writing music and sticking to a 'sound'.

"We make a huge effort to still make a song that we haven't heard. The greatest tribute as a heavy metal band you can give to Judas Priest, is to attempt not sound like them.

We talked a lot about the new album, about Queen and The Beatles...two bands that, everything from 'Bohemian Rhapsody', 'Another One Bites the Dust', to 'I Want to Break Free', and 'Stone Cold Crazy'...very different songs, different eras, everything is different about them, but they all still sound very much like Queen. And that is because, I guess, they trust themselves and musicians, as human beings."

The guys talk about the tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat, their headlining side dates during the tour, and scaling their stage set.

The new album, Feathers and Flesh, is an interesting concept album, and the guys break down the story for us, too:

"With Feathers and Flesh, our latest album, it's a concept album...it's a fable, telling the story of this owl, who goes to war against the world to stop the sun from rising."

Check out the interview for more, and some exclusive acoustic performances of "Black Waters", and "The Eagle Has Landed".

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