HYPOCRISY Cancels August 2026 North American Tour Due To 'Visa Issues'

Swedish death metallers HYPOCRISY have been forced to cancel their previously announced August 2026 North American tour due to "visa issues".

The "Mass Hallucination" trek was scheduled to include full headline sets and major support appearances alongside DIMMU BORGIR.

The tour was supposed to launch on August 10 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and conclude on August 23 in Los Angeles, California.

Earlier today (Monday, August 3),HYPOCRISY released the following statement via social media: "Due to visa issues beyond our control, we won't be able to make it to the North American tour.

"We're devastated, and truly sorry — we did everything we could.

"We're not giving up. We'll keep working to make this right and get to you as soon as we can!

"Thank you for your patience, understanding, and support!

"If you have questions about refunds, please contact your original ticket seller."

In a recent interview with Kacper Dworniczak of Strefa Music Art, HYPOCRISY frontman Peter Tägtgren addressed the reason for the long gap between the band's last two albums, with 2021's "Worship" arriving eight years after 2013's "End Of Disclosure". He said: "You become a little bit more selective and you become more picky of what you write. Nothing is ever good enough. So you write more and more and more until... And it takes forever sometimes to... You don't wanna repeat yourself, and you don't wanna sound like shit if you're doing something, because it's so far in between albums. So people expect more. They maybe think we're sitting for five, six years writing songs, but it's mainly just moments when you write songs. So you have to find, in this eight years, in between the albums, you have to find the right time to be inspired to write for it because, face it, we've done it for 35 years."

He continued: "We don't have to prove anything or we have no desire to change and start sounding like DEPECHE MODE or IRON MAIDEN or whatever. We wanna take care of how HYPOCRISY sounds 'cause it took us a while to get where we are with our own sound. Not too many bands have their own sound, I guess. So you become more selective, and it's, like, 'Okay, what's the point of making more music? What's the point of this? What's the point of that?' But eventually it comes around and you feel it starts buzzing in your body. Then you know it's time. So it's impossible to say when and how. In the past I was just writing riff after riff after riff. It's, 'Oh, okay. Put it next to the next to the next. Okay, I have a song.' So you weren't that picky then. Every riff you wrote became something on the album. Nowadays you write 20 riffs and none of them will make it to the album, so it's a little bit different. I mean, I can just shit out album after album, but it's just gonna sound like you repeat yourself. So it has to be little bit finesse. And then sometimes it takes you years to be motivated to do another album… It's not one thing. If nobody pushes anything, then nothing happens."

All recording and mixing for "Worship" took place at Tägtgren's Abyss Studio AB in Sweden while mastering was completed by Svante Forsbäck at Chartmakers Audio Mastering. Designed by artist Blake Armstrong (KATAKLYSM, IN FLAMES, CARNIFEX),"Worship"'s artwork speaks to the history of the relationship between humanity and extraterrestrials.

HYPOCRISY has a 30-year history with 12 albums, hundreds of gigs all over the world, and thousands of fans. This influential Swedish death metal band started from the will of one person, and this person's name was (and is) Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, THE ABYSS, PAIN, ex-LINDEMANN). Having made the first demos all by himself, after getting an offer from Nuclear Blast, he invited musicians to form an actual band.

Since then, HYPOCRISY gained success with its records and rocking live performances, and evolved musically and conceptually. Heavy and rich sound with catchy melodic riffs, crushing drum fills, obscure lyrics and versatile vocal parts became a signature style of the band. Its discography from debut "Penetralia" to the recent "Worship", through such legendary albums as "The Fourth Dimension", "Abducted" and "Virus", is indeed a thrilling metal journey. A journey that continues.

Today, apart from Peter, the band consists of Mikael Hedlund (bass),who joined HYPOCRISY back in 1991. Guitarist Thomas Elofsson is a session member since 2013. In 2022, the band was joined by a session drummer Henrik Axelsson.

Photo courtesy of Reigning Phoenix Music