DARKANE Prepare For North American Touring Debut

DARKANE — who formed in the late '90s and hail from Helsingborg, Sweden — have performed only once before on North American soil and were received with raving applause at 2001's Milwaukee Metalfest XV. With their first full-fledged tour of North America set to launch on October 28 at Granada in Lawrence, Kansas, guitarist and founding member of the band, Christofer Malmström, has this to share:

"Finally! We have been waiting for so many years for this opportunity, and now it's finally come... What a great package! It's unbelievable! We've been fans of FEAR FACTORY and STRAPPING YOUNG LAD since many years back, and we've practically grown up with SOILWORK here in Helsingborg, so this is really a dream coming true for us! Ever since we released our debut album 'Rusted Angel' back in 1999, we've received requests from American fans to come over and tour, and believe me, we've always wanted to, but circumstances have made it impossible until now."

With a high-profile maiden tour, a well-received album, and eager fans awaiting their arrival, what will be the most difficult thing DARKANE will face while out on the road?

"It will be quite hard to decide what songs we are going to play," muses Malmström. "We haven't toured that side of the world before, and fans have many different favorite songs. With only a 30 minute set each night, it will be difficult to choose music from all our albums, but because we don't want people to leave disappointed, we´ll alternate our setlist from evening to evening, so if you see us more than one time, chances are big that you´ll hear the song you've been waiting to hear!"

Christmas is coming early for fans of extreme drumming, as the upcoming Transgression Tour will place DARKANE's own Peter Wildoer on the same stage as FEAR FACTORY's Raymond Herrera, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD's Gene Hoglan, and SOILWORK's Dirk Verbeuren. Is there anything the band is looking forward to?

"I've always been interested in geography, so for me personally, I'm looking forward to experiencing new places I've never been to like Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Toronto, and Vancouver," he said. "I'm sure very city will be a fucking blast... I will finally get to meet the drummer in my solo project in Vancouver, Ryan van Poederooyen, who I've never met in person!"

DARKANE will be touring in support of their fourth album, "Layers of Lies", available now on Nuclear Blast Records. It is the follow-up to the band's third studio CD, "Expanding Senses", which was released in 2002.