SUFFOCATION Cancels June/July 2023 European Tour

New York death metal pioneers SUFFOCATION have canceled their previously announced spring/summer 2023 European tour. The 26-date trek was scheduled to launch on June 16 at Hellfest in Clisson, France and conclude on July 15 at Lithuania's Devilstone Festival.

Earlier today (Friday, June 2),SUFFOCATION released the following statement via social media: "It is with deep regret that we have to announce the cancellation of our summer June/July 2023 tour scheduled within Europe/UK.

"As you may know we previously toured Europe last month and during this tour a few members of the band suffered extreme physical strain resulting in injuries preventing us from returning back to the area less than a month from our previous tour.

"Although it's never our intention to cancel any tour, the health of our bandmates is key for continuing forward into the rest of the year and it's required that these members rest accordingly and recover from their injuries sustained during this tour. The physical strain that touring takes on the bodies of musicians manifests itself in many ways that are out of our control.

"We have a lot in the works for the remainder of the year including writing and completing our new album and we look forward to returning to one of our favorite territories and fans in the EU/UK bringing you SUFFOCATION at full strength, blazing and cranking alongside you all."

In November 2021, SUFFOCATION released a live album recorded during original vocalist Frank Mullen's last North American tour. Mixed and mastered by Christian Donaldson (BEYOND CREATION, CRYPTOPSY),"Live In North America" plays like a "best of", and is the perfect farewell to one of the most influential singers in extreme music. The artwork for the album was created by Jon Zig.

In an April 2022 interview with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, SUFFOCATION guitarist Terrance Hobbs stated about how the band's first non-Frank Mullen SUFFOCATION album was coming together: "I'll be honest: We really like Ricky Myers, who is singing for us. He's one hundred percent into it, one hundred and ten, if you want to give that a little bit extra of clap. The pre-production we're doing, he sounds super awesome, super aggressive. Of course, we miss Frank. We would love to have Frank; we never wanted to tell the public that Frank wanted to retire. Him pushing all the time with his vocals, family, kids, travel, jobs, wife and so forth, the things that go on in the real world. Frank said, 'I'm going to take that backseat. I'll do little things here and there. Maybe some backups on somebody's record. I'm not really looking to write records, go on tour and support all that stuff.' It kinda hurt. Obviously, I'm still great friends with Frank and we always have been friends since we were 15 years old. It hurts not having them there. He's still super supportive of the band. He still comes out. He comes and hangs out. Sometimes he'll feel the gumption to do stuff and maybe if we're working on an old song, he'll be the one to talk to Ricky and help him with the lyrical patterns. Frank is still involved in the music industry to some degree and especially still involved with us to some degree, but he wanted to take the back seat. And he was the one who said, 'Get Ricky!' We had done some touring back in '95, '96 and we met Ricky Myers, he's the drummer and head of the band DISGORGED from California. We had done some touring and eventually, Ricky caught wind, especially Derek [Boyer, bass], being a California player. He's been with us for a long time. Longer than any of the original members. [Laughs] It's kinda crazy. It's great for me because now I've got a right-hand man who's there just like Doug [Cerrito, guitar] was there for a long time. Basically, what we wanted to do was keep the integrity of our band. We have new members. We talked with each other. We tried to work out everything we could possibly do. We may get Frank to sing an old 'Breeding [The Spawn]' song on this record for all I know. Don't cross your fingers, but I'm not sure. We still have a very good rapport, and I think Ricky is a pretty good choice. He's been with us for five, six years. He's done quite a bit of touring with us. I think he's a good fit. I think it will be good."

Asked if Ricky has to adjust to SUFFOCATION, or SUFFOCATION has to adjust to Ricky for the new songs, Terrance said: "We try any technique. Ricky is a die-hard person and hot as fuck on it. [Laughs] As soon as I give him new riffs, he's immediately writing. I don't have to ask him shit. He's already on; he's on it. It was a big relief. Frank was like that in the earlier stages of SUFFOCATION. As time went on, we started picking up on the writing and making the patterns for the lyrics. He was slowly fading out of that. More of it was coming on Derek and me to write lyrics. Now, we don't even have to bother. If any of us decide to write something, we give it to Ricky, but he does all the writing on this album, which is fantastic. It's great to have somebody who is one hundred percent into it and ready to be on it. He's very open, too. Ricky's like, 'How do you think this sounds? Does this sound cool? Tell me if my tone sucks. Anything.' It's an eye-opening experience and it gives me a little more gumption and drive in my old age because now I have someone who wants to put in all that energy."