Empire State Bastard
11th November 2023

Having played a selection of intimate shows earlier this year, including a sell-out show at the infamous Camden Underworld, and multiple festival sets across the UK and Europe at the likes of Download, Wacken Open Air (Germany), Hellfest (France), Glastonbury and 2000Trees, Empire State Bastard today announce they will tour the UK and Europe this November. Simon Neil (Biffy Clyro) and Mike Vennart (Oceansize, Biffy Clyro touring guitarist) will be joined by Slayer legend Dave Lombardo on drums, with Naomi Macleod (Bitch Falcon) on bass guitar.

Bringing what was described by Kerrang! as “the dictionary definition of a cataclysmic racket”, the UK leg of the tour will include hometown shows for Simon and Mike respectively at Glasgow SWG3 TV Studio on [date] and Manchester New Century Hall on [date], plus a stop at London’s Electric Brixton on [date]. Meanwhile in Europe, the band will visit cities in Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne), France (Paris) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam). The special guest for the tour is yet to be announced.

The tour announcement follows the band’s first wave of releases – ‘Harvest’, ‘Stutter’ and ‘The Looming’ – all taken from upcoming debut album ‘Rivers of Heresy’, out on 1st September via Roadrunner Records. It’s an album that sees Simon & Mike adventurously probe almost every dark crevice imaginable from the myriad sounds of metal and genre-adjacent extremity, the result of the duo sharing the most extreme music they could find whilst touring together for many years – described by the likes of Metal Hammer as: “It’s like Converge, Cult Of Luna and The Locust got Pixies’ Frank Black to write some songs for them. Absolutely terrifying.”