That time has now come, as the band recently announced that they would be playing three co-headline shows down the eastern seaboard in early September alongside DevilDriver. Rhythm guitarist Alex Wade, speaking from his home in Lowville, Tennessee, is regretful about having to pull out of the Soundwave jaunt, but very happy to be coming back a little later than expected.
“We’re excited to be able to come back and make those shows up for our fans that missed us because we had to cancel Soundwave,” he says. “We were really bummed out about that situation because our hands were tied, and there really wasn’t anything we could do, and ultimately we decided that we had to cancel.
“That was what we had to do at the time, but we’re just excited that we can come back and make it up to a few of the cities down there.”
With all the excitement of the Soundwave 2015 first round announcements happening now, you could be forgiven for thinking that they merely would’ve traded their place on the 2014 tour for next year’s version. But as Wade explains this was never really realistic, and that their own tour was the more suitable option.
“I’m not sure that was really on the cards,” he admits. “If we were offered it, we would absolutely love to do the tour again, so hopefully we’ll get the offer for that next year [for the 2016 tour].”
And, while this run may not be Soundwave, they are bringing another absolute luminary of American heavy music with them, DevilDriver, in what promises to be a blistering heavyweight double bill of epic proportions. The two bands have toured together previously, and have become great friends, so the tour is sure to be a rollicking good time for all concerned.
“We’re really excited to be playing Australia with those guys,” he enthuses. “We did a full US and Canadian tour with DevilDriver, and that went over really well in North America, so I’m excited to see how well it does in Australia.
“I’m sure we’ve played with them quite a bit in the past,” he recalls. “The first time we played shows with them and really got to know them was in 2013. We played a couple of off-day shows on a European festival run with DevilDriver. So we got to know them through playing those small clubs in Europe, and we had a great time. So when they did a headline tour of their own, they took us out as direct support. And it went over really well.”
The band have now released five albums, and they pride themselves on playing a broad cross-section of material in all of their live sets to keep fans, old and new, happy. And that’s even with the fact the band have recently morphed from a deathcore band into more of a pure death metal act. Especially on their latest opus Our Endless War.
“We’re not one of those bands that just plays the whole new record and doesn’t play old songs,” he reveals. “We always make sure we have a good mix. With every album we release it gets harder and harder to write a good setlist, because our sets aren’t necessarily getting any longer.
“Our Endless War was definitely an evolution of our sound. We’re maturing into a new Whitechapel, so to speak… this is the band we’ve wanted to be. We didn’t start the band to be a deathcore band, we just wanted to be a metal band.”
BY ROD WHITFIELD
