Voivod have cancelled the ten city United States tour they announced for October. It was to begin on 8 October in Youngstown, Ohio, with the Richmond metal punk trio BAT in support.
The statement, posted on Saturday, does not soften anything and does not promise a return. "Dear Fans, it is with heavy hearts that we must cancel the US tour dates with BAT due to family health emergency in the VOIVOD clan. We would like to say postponed and give you a new time period but VOIVOD can't commit to any dates right now." Tickets are refunded at point of sale, and the band asked fans to wait a few days for the ticketing systems to catch up.
The sentence that matters there is the refusal to say postponed. Two months ago the band said Carol Langevin, the brother of drummer Michel Away Langevin, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at 60, and set up a GoFundMe for his treatment. The same statement said Eric Forrest, who fronted the band in the 1990s and has been filling in for Denis Belanger on the road, is being treated for prostate cancer, and that Belanger is at home with his partner Christine, who has colorectal cancer. Guitarist Denis Piggy D'Amour died of complications of advanced colon cancer in August 2005.
That is four illnesses inside one band's circle in a single year, and it is the reason a tour that was ten dates from starting has no new window attached to it. The band were working on a record, as Daniel Chewy Mongrain described in September.