ATHEIST: RAND BURKEY Forced To Bow Out, Stand-In Guitarist Announced

May 12, 2006

Veteran ATHEIST guitarist Rand Burkey has been forced to bow out of the band's forthcoming festival performances due to legal troubles. Filling in for Burkey on the upcoming reunion shows will be veteran guitarist Chris Baker. Baker will be joining core ATHEIST members Kelly Shaefer (vocals),Tony Choy (bass),and Steve Flynn (drums) as well as guitarist Sonny Carson (who will be playing Shaefer's guitar role due to Shaefer's long-running battles with tendonitis and carpal tunnel). Baker and Carson are currently playing with Steve Flynn's new band GNOSTIC.

Commented Shaefer: "In fine ATHEIST tradition, we've been dealt another set of obstacles to overcome. These new problems have made these upcoming shows come very close to not happening but Chris is an extraordinary player, and has done a great job on the very difficult task of dissecting and learning Rand's guitar parts. Not having Rand be able to take part is a disappointment to us, but we have always honored our band commitments, even in the face of unbelievable odds, and this will be no exception. We've been playing these songs for months now, they are sounding great! We simply cannot wait to get it on!"

As previously reported, ATHEIST will be performing the following songs on their upcoming tour:

01. On They Slay
02. Unholy War
03. Piece of Time
04. Unquestionable Presence
05. Retribution
06. Mother Man
07. An Incarnation's Dream
08. And the Psychic Saw
09. I Deny
10. Mineral
11. Air
12. Fire

Upcoming ATHEIST shows:

Jul. 14-15 - Bloodstock Open Air @ Catton Hall - Derbyshire, UK
Jul. 16-17 - Evolution Festival - Brescia, ITA
Aug. 03 - Black Pes Music Bar - Prague, CZR
Aug. 4-5 - Wacken Open Air - Wacken, GER
Aug. 23-26 - Hole In The Sky Festival - Bergen, NOR
Aug. 27 - Mylos Xilourgio – Thessaloniki, GRE
Aug. 28 - An Club – Athens, GRE

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).