For me, Enslaved’s 20th Anniversary North American tour with Ghost and Alcest is one of the high spots of this fall. Enslaved is very high on my list of bands to see who I’ve never seen before, and Ghost and Alcest are also bands whose music I like quite a bit and would love to see in the flesh. I suspect lots of you have been excited about this tour, too.

However, as I was checking my Facebook news stream this morning I saw this cryptic post by Enslaved on their wall: “We’re working on a replacement and will of course keep you posted. Still – we’re looking forward to celebrating our 20th anniversary with you! Working on the setlist… Suggestions?” At first I thought maybe someone in Enslaved had left the band. And then I saw this post on Ghost’s Facebook wall, which appeared in my news stream:

“Due to some last minute complications with our visas, we have been forced to cancel our North American tour. We are sorry towards the other bands on the tour, Enslaved and Alcest. And we are most of all tremendously sorry towards all of our fans. This is truly beyond our control and we are making everything within our (His) powers to be able to come back to the US as soon as possible and perform for all of you.

Our most malicious of wishes,
/A Nameless Ghoul”

What sucky news. Yet it seems things like this happen on a weekly basis — European bands being denied visas by the U.S. government, screwing up long-planned tours. I haven’t investigated why this happens so often, or why in particular it happened to Ghost. Maybe I will. Or maybe I’ll just mope. Perhaps there’s a silver lining to this cloud — the addition of a replacement for Ghost who will be an even more awesome addition to the line-up? Check the tour dates after the jump. Continue reading »