ARSIS WILL TOUR WITH SONATA ARCTICA

Fall is “touring season” for metal bands. A ton of unmissable tours taking place between now and December have already been announced, and it seems like there are more being added pretty much every day. Why fall? Bands want to play European festivals in early summer, the big U.S. traveling festivals in late summer, touring in the winter absolutely blows, and spring’s always a busy touring season as well (and only has about two months of decent weather before festival season starts). So, fall it is. I hope y’all have been saving up those Benjamins for tickets.

So: Sonata Arctica and Arsis have announced the “first batch” of dates for an upcoming North American run.

Who will be playing in Arsis this time around? Will it be James Malone, or some combination of other dudes taking his place? Is drummer Mike Van Dyne back in the band again again again? Will guitarist Nick Cordle’s new gig with Arch Enemy prevent him from participating in this Arsis tour? Who knows? Who cares? At this point going to see Arsis live is basically like rooting for your favorite sports team, its roster constantly changing from year to year; as Jerry Seinfeld famously pointed out, at a certain point aren’t we basically just rooting for the clothes?

Truth to be told I don’t care very much about Sonata Arctica, but I’ve never seen ’em live and I’m willing to give them a shot after Arsis plays. I’d think at least one more band will be added to this tour as well.

12/6 New York, NY @ Gramercy Theatre
12/7 Worcester, MA @ Palladium
12/8 West Chester, PA @ The Note
12/9 Springfield, VA @ Empire
12/11 Toronto, ON @ Opera House
12/13 Cleveland, OH @ Peabody’s
12/15 Joliet, IL @ Mojoes
12/17 Denver, CO @ Bluebird Theater

Arsis reportedly have a new album on the way called Unwelcome, although a release date hasn’t been announced yet; check out the artwork here and a demo of a new song called “Choking Sand” here.

-VN