Death metal supergroup and masters of horror, Sweden's Bloodbath are bringing their Live Morbid Funerals Tour to North America for seven select dates this May. The mini-tour serves as only the second time the foursome have hit the United States and marks their debut on Canadian soil with a trio of gigs in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.
Bloodbath have been pulverizing on an on-again-off-again basis since 1998. As it stands, the band today is made up of a who's fucking who of the metal landscape with Anders Nystrom and Jonas Renkse of Katatonia, drummer Martin Axenrot of Opeth and Nick Holmes of Paradise Lost.
Holmes found himself behind the mic as frontman in 2014 after Opeth's Mikael Åkerfeldt ammicably left the group.
"I was aware of the band," Holmes shared with Metal Injection ahead of the tour. "At the time I wasn't doing the extreme vocals, even with Paradise Lost. We've kind of gone back into that in the last few albums. At that time the guys asked me, I think we were touring the States with Katatonia. I was actually quite surprised. I was shocked, purely because I wasn't doing that vocal style at that time. I know the guys are fans of the early PL work. I was really flattered, but I initially thought that I didn't know if I could do it, purely based on what I was doing at that point.
"Mikael has very big footsteps to tred in, but I'm not trying to do what he did. I couldn't do what he did. It has to be different. The same when Peter (Tägtgren of Hypocrisy and PAIN) joined as well, it was a different style again from Mike. It's a different style for each singer."
With rumours of a new Bloodbath record making their way across the web (though Holmes remained tight lipped on the forthcoming followup to Grand Morbid Funeral), the Paradise Lost founder gives a status update on PL, Katatonia and Opeth, as a way of putting things in perspective.
"Katatonia is sort of on ice at the moment. They're just kind of getting a rest from the band for a little while. I know Opeth is starting slowly again getting a few dates up for the summer and then they'll be writing another album. I know Mike is writing that now. Next year we're looking at doing another PL album. The year is sort of moving fast. I can't even believe Grand Morbid Funeral came around four years ago. That's come around incredibly fast, and it's kind of scary actually."
As for what devout followers of the blood legion can expect on this tour, Holmes doesn't shy away from setting fans up for a night of being bludgeoned by metal.
"The show is full on. The music is relentless with Bloodbath and it doesn't really let up. It's us in your face for an hour, basically. It doesn't really let up."
For more on Bloodbath and the Live Morbid Funerals Tour, check them out here.
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