DEICIDE: Part Of European Tour Postponed; Lineup Changes Explained

Contrary to reports from the Portuguese date of DEICIDE's European tour, DEICIDE have not cancelled the rest of the trek but have instead postponed part of the tour in order to accodmodate drummer Steve Asheim, whose father has just died. The group's booking agent, Adam Elfin of First Contact Agency, has sent BLABBERMOUTH.NET the following statement regarding the situation:

"At 3am after the Madrid show, the tour discovered that (DEICIDE's drummer) Steve Asheim's father had died. Despite that the band played the show last night in Porto. However, they have flown back to the States today [Saturday, Nov. 6], to allow Steve to be with his family and make the necessary arrangements at this most difficult of times. Therefore, due to completely unforeseen and obviously unavoidable circumstances, DEICIDE are postponing PART of the current tour.

"Both Steve and the rest of the band are determined to not let the promoters, venues and fans down, and therefore to continue the tour as soon as circumstances will allow and Steve feels comfortable to return to gigging. To that end we are looking at moving some of the shows from the beginning of the tour, to the end of the tour. These dates will remain where they are:

Nov. 20 – Musikhauset - Örnsköldsvik, SWE
Nov. 21 - Club Monster - Gävle, SW
Nov. 22 - John Dee - Oslo, NOR
Nov. 23 - Garage - Bergen, NOR
Nov. 24 - Folken - Stavanger, NOR
Nov. 25 - Voxhall - Århus, DEN
Nov. 26 - Tor 3 - Osnabrück, GER
Nov. 27 - Kallewerk - Bad Salzungen, GER
Nov. 28 - Effenaar – Eindhoven, NETH
Nov. 29 - Mean Fiddler - London, UK
Nov. 30 - Academy2 - Birmingham, UK
Dec. 01 - Hop & Grape - Manchester, UK
Dec. 02 - Cathouse - Glasgow, UK
Dec. 03 - Rio - Bradford, UK
Dec. 04 - The Village - Dublin, IRE
Dec. 05 - Bierkeller - Bristol, UK
Dec. 06 - Patronaat - Haarlem, NETH
Dec. 07 - La Locomotive - Paris, FRA
Dec. 08 - Muziek-o-droom - Hasselt, BEL

"In addition, the band have tentatively rescheduled a handful of the dates affected by the postponement. However, they are still to be confirmed and should be checked with the local venue:

Dec. 16 - Bad Bonn - Düdingen, SWI
Dec. 20 – Mejeriet - Lund, SWE
Dec. 21 - Sticky Fingers - Gothenburg, SWE
Dec. 22 - Club Agression @ Mondo - Stockholm, SWE

[Note: Other affected dates will be rescheduled to the end of the tour as well]

"We are looking at re-scheduling the shows prior to this period to after the above period. So far the promoters in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Sweden are aware of the possible new dates and have already started to re-schedule the relevant shows [see above].

"Regarding the set length, Brian Hoffman — as previously stated — was unable to play the tour due to unavoidable personal reasons. Brian informed the rest of the DEICIDE team three days before the tour started of his situation. Given the choice of cancelling the tour, and letting down promoters, venues and fans, it was decided to draft in another guitarist as soon as possible. Enter Jack Owen [ex-CANNIBAL CORPSE] who stepped up to the formidable task.

"All the members of the band and crew, except Eric Hoffman, were at Tampa airport ready to catch their flight to Europe to begin the tour. Several calls were placed to Eric to find out where he was and when he would arrive at the airport. Eric constantly stated he was on his way and would be their very soon. It turned out that this was not the case, and Eric had never even set off for the airport.

"Again the DEICIDE team were faced with a decision to cancel the tour, or try and save it at the last moment by drafting in another guitarist. At which moment a call went it to Dave Suzuki [VITAL REMAINS], who saved the day and immediately got on a flight from Rhode Island and met the rest of the band and crew at JFK airport on their way to Madrid.

"It was a difficult decision to either cancel on the fans or try to soldier through with a shorter set for the very initial shows, and allow time for the new guitarists to learn more material and lengthen the set as the tour went along. Not wanting to let down the promoters, venues and fans it was decided to try and make it happen as best was possible under the circumstances.

"Then after DEICIDE had finally arrived in Europe with a full band, they got the tragic news regarding Steve's father. The obvious arrangements were then made.

"The DEICIDE band and team are determined to play this tour for the promoters, venues and most importantly their fans, and despite all the adverse circumstances, will emerge stronger and playing kick-ass shows for their fans. When the band return — and they will — they will have had time to re-group and the show will be everything the fans want it to be and then some. Watch out Europe, DEICIDE will return very soon, and they will return with a kick-ass show.

"Our thoughts are with Steve and his family."