APOCALYPTICA Announces North American Headlining Tour

Finnish cello rockers APOCALYPTICA — accompanied by their American lead singer Franky Perez — will set out on the road in May 2015 to bring their unique and exciting live show to fans across the U.S. and Canada. The band will be fresh off its April tour dates opening for SIXX: A.M. and ready to hit the road again.

APOCALYPTICA's headline run will follow the highly anticipated release of the band's eighth album, "Shadowmaker", which is due on April 21 via Eleven Seven Music Group's Better Noise imprint. Support on the trek will come from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based rockers ART OF DYING.

Says APOCALYPTICA: "It's really exciting for us to return to the U.S. and Canada for our headline tour and we can't wait to present a lot of new material from our upcoming album, 'Shadowmaker'. Our new singer, Franky Perez, who is a real entertainer, will definitely bring an interesting new edge to our show and we are looking forward to seeing old friends and making new ones."

ART OF DYING shared its excitement for being apart of the tour: "We are ecstatic to be hitting the road for the first time in three years and performing our new music with APOCALYPTICA! The cities and venues on this tour are some of our favorites in North America, including a hometown stop in Vancouver... We're going to bring it hard!"

The dates are as follows:

May 17 - Norfolk, VA @ The NorVa
May 19 - Raleigh, NC @ Lincoln Center
May 20 - Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
May 23 - Lubbock, TX @ Jake’s Backroom
May 24 - Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
May 25 - Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theatre
May 27 - Reno, NV @ Knitting Factory Concert House
May 28 - Garden City, ID @ Revolution Center
May 29 - Seattle, WA @ Showbox SODO
May 30 - Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Jun. 01 - Edmonton, AB @ Union Hall
Jun. 02 - Calgary, AB @ MacEwan Hall Ballroom
Jun. 03 - Saskatoon, SK @ O’Brian’s Event Centre
Jun. 04 - Winnipeg, MB @ The Garrick Centre
Jun. 06 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
Jun. 07 - Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection
Jun. 08 - London, ON @ London Music Hall
Jun. 09 - Quebec City, QC @ Imperial
Jun. 10 - Montreal, QC @ Metropolis

Asked how APOCALYPTICA ended up hiring Franky Perez to handle the vocals on the entire "Shadowmaker" record, APOCALYPTICA's Eicca Toppinen said: "It was actually the beginning of June last year when we made the decision to, 'Okay, there's no more guest vocalists on this record. We need to find a guy who makes the record and will tour with us for the record. It's like a puzzle where all the pieces of the puzzle are spread all over, they are not connected, and we need to get those pieces connected. And ways to have one singer to make the whole thing more understandable for people, to make the working circumstances more comfortable for us where things are not so dependant on people outside of the band — the guests, the managers and the label — so it's all about us."

He continued: "Our manager put a quiet request in the business, like, 'Okay, APOCALYPTICA searching for a singer for the record. Do we have any suggestions or any people who are great singers who do not have the right band yet?' And we got about 20-25 suggestions. We went through them, and asked five of them to make a recording and from those we picked out three and asked them to sing a little piece of 'Hole In My Soul' from the new album, and Franky was the obvious choice. So he came through the record company search. Somebody said at the American label that he's the guy, 'I've used him many times on session [recordings]. He's great. And he didn't have anything active going except his solo record, but nothing band-wise."

Eicca added: "I love Franky's voice. He's not just a regular singer. He has a very soulful sound and he's able to sing different styles, which is perfect for APOCALYPTICA, because our songs are not only heavy metal, it's a variety of different colors and different dynamics, and the singer needs to match that, and I think Franky is a perfect match."

Asked if APOCALYPTICA would consider keeping Perez permanently as a bandmember, Eicca said: "It's too early to think about it, but nothing is decided. Now we got the record done, and then we will have touring more or less for two years, and at the end of that time, or sometime during those two years, we will know. But it wouldn't be an impossible option to have Franky in the band, but it's too early to think about it. We have been through several concepts, and we still want the option to change the concept to do something different."