Disappointing news for Avenged Sevenfold fans, as the band has been forced to cancel its entire summer North American tour. Unfortunately, singer M. Shadows is battling a serious vocal cord issue and is under doctor’s orders not to perform.

The trek was set to kick off this Sunday (July 22nd), featuring support from Prophets of Rage and Three Days Grace, with Ho99o9 on select dates.



In a letter to fans on Friday (July 20th), Shadows wrote:

There is no good way to start out a note containing bad news but here it is.

After Europe I came down with a terrible viral infection that rendered me voiceless.

I tried my best to take care of the situation with voice rest, medication and doctor visits but my voice was only getting worse.

After a week of steroids the swelling went down enough to see the cause of the problem. A blood blister has formed on my vocal folds and is preventing them from vibrating properly. In short, I can’t sing anything at the moment and the more I attempt to the more damage is being done. Luckily, as of now the doctors feel that 3 months of no singing and voice rest should get my chords back on track.

Unfortunately, this means we will have to cancel all tour dates at the moment.

Decisions like this weigh on me very heavily. It’s a tour I was looking forward to very much. I want to apologize to the fans who have spent their time and money booking travel arrangements and accommodations. I also want to apologize to our crew and the other bands who were depending on this tour.

None of these things are lost on me.

Just know that I have exhausted every possible solution in trying to get out there and perform for you. It just simply can’t happen at the moment.

We have a few things coming down the pipe soon that should be fun so we hope you look out for those.

Again, I am deeply sorry and hope to see you all soon.

In silence,

M

In addition to the headlining tour, Avenged Sevenfold have bowed out of their scheduled gigs at the Impact Festival in Bangor, Maine, and Heavy Montreal in Canada. The Impact Festival has announced that Chevelle will be taking Avenged Sevenfold’s spot on the lineup, while Heavy Montreal has revealed that Limp Bizkit will be stepping in to fill the vacancy left by Avenged’s absence. Both festivals take place the weekend of July 27-29.