SUICIDE SILENCE // Unstoppable Fanboys

Australia is a land of drought, flooding rains and passionate metalheads. It’s a market Suicide Silence are well acquainted with. They played their first Aussie shows with the mighty Parkway Drive in 2008 and were all set to support the Byron boys on their massive Australian tour last year, but ended up having to cancel.

So, what happened?

“Well, there’s this little band called Korn, I don’t know if you’ve heard of them?” jokes frontman Eddie Hermida.

“We were all ready to go to Australia and then we got asked to be the main support on Korn’s 20th anniversary tour. Korn are heroes of ours, so we couldn’t say no to that. We hope the Aussies would understand.”

Luckily us Aussies are an understanding bunch. Hermida says the decision was worth it, even though the idea of meeting their heroes made them sick with nerves.

“They were really great to us, and we just had to play it cool, like it was no big deal. No problem at all,” says Hermida, laughing.

A lot has happened since Suicide Silence launched 2014’s You Can’t Stop Me, their first album since the death of founding frontman Mitch Lucker. Hermida — who was forced to leave All Shall Perish to take up the role with Suicide Silence — doesn’t deny the pressure was on during this time, but not in the way you’d expect.

“I felt a huge responsibility to do Mitch justice and to do this band justice in my performances,” Hermida explains.

“Sure there were people talking online about who was better out of me and Mitch and all that kind of stuff, but really my main focus was to be as good as possible and continue to uphold everything the band had built.” [Eddie Hermida]

“Sure there were people talking online about who was better out of me and Mitch and all that kind of stuff, but really my main focus was to be as good as possible and continue to uphold everything the band had built.”

Their upcoming tour will be the first time Australian audiences get to hear tracks from You Can’t Stop Me live. Hermida had only been in the band for a matter of months when they last visited the country as part of the 2014 Soundwave lineup.

“Australia has always been so good to this band. The guys had such great times with Mitch here and everyone was really kind-hearted when I first came here when we played Soundwave. We’re going to make it up to you all for the cancellation!”

You Can’t Stop Me  is out now through Nuclear Blast.

SUICIDE SILENCE AUSTRALIAN TOUR

Saturday 3 September – Wooly Mammoth, Brisbane
Sunday 4 September – Manning Bar, Sydney
Tuesday 6 September – The Cambridge, Newcastle
Wednesday 7 September – 170 Russell, Melbourne
Thursday 8 September – Fowlers Live, Adelaide
Friday 9 September – Amplifier, Peth

Tickets via Destroy All Lines.