This Summer is already a great one for tours, and Slayer announcing a tour with Lamb of God and Behemoth is probably the most legit and heavy of tours hitting arenas later this year. While you’re there, take a good look at Lamb of God, as it’s probably going to be the last you’ll be seeing them for a while. It’s not like the band is going away for good, but as VII: Sturm Und Drang turns two years old in July while the band’s on tour, they’re going to take a well-deserved rest after things wrap up in August.
Appearing on Nikki Sixx’s Sixx Sense radio show, frontman Randy Blythe says he’s hardly had a break since 2012, when he was arrested and charged with manslaughter in Prague. He says that getting back on the road after he was acquitted was done out of necessity, since his legal team was ridiculously expensive. Recording an album was next, and there’s been no looking back:
“I got out of prison and immediately went on tour, because I had five lawyers and they were just hemorrhaging money like crazy. I went from jail to home to, ten days later, being at Knotfest to home for a month or two, then out on tour with Lamb of God, then back to the Czech Republic to go to trial, found not guilty, then come home, then finish up the rest of our tour and finally end in South Africa. And then we took a little time off, but there were some changes in the organization and they started writing another record and we need to make money, so it was back in the studio. And it was back on tour again for this last record [2015’s ‘VII: Sturm Und Drang’], and that cycle is not gonna end until August or September of this year, I guess. So it’s just been, like, grinding, grinding, grinding. And when I’m not on the road, I’m working on writing and photography.”
“[These are] things that make me happy. But it’s at a point now where it’s, like, at the end of this tour cycle, it’s gonna be, like, boom, it’s time to take a break for real and concentrate more on writing and being at home with the family. It’s time for me, now, at the end of this… ‘Cause we got off, after I got done with the whole prison thing and then finishing that tour, we got off the road and then we started writing a new record, and then we recorded that record. And we didn’t tell anyone that we were recording — nobody knew. They thought we were just chilling at home, and then we go on tour before the record even comes out. We’re mixing the record on tour, and then all of a sudden, the record comes out. [People] were, like, ‘Woah! Where did the record come from?’ And it’s, like, ‘Well, we’ve been working the whole time.’ And it hasn’t stopped.”
The band certainly deserve some time off, but given their work ethic, the other members probably already have some riffs stockpiled, so then they regroup after their time off, they’ll likely come back as strong as ever. In the meantime, here’s where you’ll be able to catch them with Slayer. The off dates with them and Behemoth are in bold.
7/12 Sanford Center – Bemidji, Minn.
7/13 Rock Fest 2017 – Cadott, Wis. (no Behemoth)
7/17 Grand Rapids, MI @ 20 Monroe Live
7/15 Rock USA 2017 – Ford Festival Park, Oshkosh, Wis. (no Behemoth)
7/16 Chicago Open Air Festival – Toyota Park, Chicago, Ill.
7/18 Express Live! – Columbus, Ohio
7/20 Red Hat Amphitheater Raleigh, N.C.
7/21 St. Augustine Amphitheater – St. Augustine, Fla.
7/23 Electric Factory Outdoors – Philadelphia, Pa.
7/24 Montreal, QC @ M Telus
7/25 Blue Hills Bank Pavilion – Boston, Mass.
7/27 Theater at Madison Square Garden, -New York, N.Y.
7/28 Pier Six Pavilion – Baltimore, Md.
7/30 Municipal Auditorium – Nashville, Tenn.
7/31 St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
8/01 Providence Medical Center Amphitheater – Bonner Springs, Kansas
8/02 1stBank Center – Denver, Colo.
8/04 The Joint/Hard Rock Hotel – Las Vegas, Nev.
8/05 The Forum – Los Angeles, Calif.
8/09 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – San Francisco, Calif.
8/11 The Cuthbert Amphitheater – Eugene, Ore.
8/12 WaMu Theatre – Seattle, Wash.
8/14 Encana Events Center – Dawson Creek, British Columbia
8/15 SMS Equipment Stadium – Fort McMurray, Alberta
8/17 KettleHouse Amphitheater – Missoula, Mont.
8/18 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
8/19 Isleta Amphitheater- Albuquerque, N.M.
8/20 Comerica Theatre – Phoenix, Ariz.
[via Metal Sucks]
