SUFFOCATION Announces Fall 2023 North American Tour With INCANTATION

New York death metal pioneers SUFFOCATION will teaming up this fall with legendary death metal band INCANTATION for the "Ancient Unholy Rising Tour 2023". The 26-date trek will kick off on November 7 in Baltimore and makes its way across North America with performances in Montreal, Seattle, and Houston before its conclusion in Greensboro on December 4. Joining the bands as openers are SKELETAL REMAINS and STABBING.

SUFFOCATION comments: "We're excited to hit the road alongside our brothers in death metal INCANTATION and support acts SKELETAL REMAINS and STABBING. The USA and Canada won't know what hit 'em! By the way, if there was ever a tour you do not want to miss, THIS is the one because we've got a lot of surprises in place for fans so look for some HUGE announcements coming soon, you guys have waited long enough."

The "Ancient Unholy Rising Tour 2023" will serve as SUFFOCATION's North American album release tour, so expect more details on a new album announcement very soon.

Tickets for the tour go on sale this Friday, September 1 at 9 a.m. Eastern.

Confirmed dates for SUFFOCATION's "Ancient Unholy Uprising Tour 2023" with co-headliners INCANTATION as well as SKELETAL REMAINS and STABBING are:

Nov. 07 - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Soundstage
Nov. 08 - Reading, PA - Reverb
Nov. 09 - Brooklyn, NY - Warsaw
Nov. 10 - Providence, RI - Alchemy
Nov. 11 - Trois-Rivières, QC - Amphithéâtre Cogeco
Nov. 12 - Montreal, QC - Studio TO
Nov. 13 - Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
Nov. 14 - Detroit, MI - The Sanctuary
Nov. 15 - Chicago, IL - Reggies
Nov. 16 - Madison, WI - The Annex
Nov. 17 - Lawrence, KS - The Granada
Nov. 18 - Denver, CO - HQ
Nov. 20 - Richland, WA - Ray's Golden Lion
Nov. 21 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon
Nov. 22 - Portland, OR - Bossanova Ballroom
Nov. 24 - San Francisco, CA - DNA Lounge
Nov. 25 - San Diego, CA - Brick By Brick
Nov. 26 - Los Angeles, CA - 1720
Nov. 27 - Phoenix, AZ - Rebel Lounge
Nov. 28 - Albuquerque, NM - Launchpad
Nov. 29 - Oklahoma City, OK - 89th Street Collective
Nov. 30 - Dallas, TX - Granada Theater
Dec. 01 - Houston, TX - Scout Bar
Dec. 02 - San Antonio, TX - Paper Tiger
Dec. 03 - New Orleans, LA - Southport Music Hall
Dec. 04 - Greensboro, NC - Hangar 1819

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."

SUFFOCATION is:

Terrence Hobbs - Guitar
Derrek Boyer - Bass
Eric Morotti - Drums
Charlie Errigo - Guitar
Ricky Myers - Vocals

Photo credit: Jason Carlson