Septicflesh will begin their North American tour on Monday 5 October at the Municipal Auditorium in Riverside, California, without the lead guitarist Christos Antoniou. The band said on 4 October that Antoniou had fractured and broken ribs in a fall and would need time to recover.
"We will take the stage as a three-piece, while Christos focuses on his recovery with the aim of rejoining the band later on the tour," the statement read. No date was given for his return.
The run is a support slot on a four band bill with Arch Enemy, The Black Dahlia Murder, Crypta and Thrown Into Exile. After Riverside it goes to Phoenix on 6 October, Salt Lake City on 8 October and Denver on 9 October, then through Texas, Florida, the Carolinas and the north east, reaching New York on 24 October and Philadelphia on 26 October. Three Canadian dates follow at the end of the month, Quebec City on 30 October, Montreal on 31 October and Toronto on 1 November, before the midwest and the prairies, and it finishes on the west coast in the middle of November.
Antoniou co-founded the band in Athens in 1990 and is credited on its records with the orchestrations as well as the guitars. The two founders beside him, Spiros Antoniou on bass and harsh vocals and Sotiris Vayenas on guitar and clean vocals, are both still in the line up, along with Kerim Lechner on drums since 2014 and Psychon on guitar since 2018.