Avatar have released a Christmas single called Naughty List, with Zakk Wylde on it and a video to go with it.
A metal Christmas song is a format with a long and mostly embarrassing history, and the Swedes have always been closer to theatre than to earnestness anyway, which is probably why they are the band attempting it. Wylde, who plays in Black Label Society and has spent decades beside Ozzy Osbourne, is the guest.
There is no album behind it and none announced. The band put out a single earlier this year and has spent most of the autumn on the road, with the November dates in Britain and Ireland postponed for personal reasons.
Releasing a seasonal song in the middle of November rather than in December is the one part of this that is purely practical: six weeks is how long a song needs to reach anybody before the day it belongs to.