Word on the street is that Batushka’s upcoming North American tour is not selling well. I have that on good authority from a reliable, anonymous source.

Often dubbed “Faketushka” or “Poseur Batushka” (no joke — one promoter on the tour used the latter phrase in private conversation with me), this is the version of the band helmed by vocalist Bartłomiej Krysiuk and a bunch of scabs, while the band’s old fans — who largely support founder/songwriter Krzysztof Drabikowski’s version of the band — are seeing right through the charade despite the backing of a prominent metal record label and management company.

But hey, while the American dates aren’t selling well at least they’re selling… and it could be worse: the band’s upcoming Australian tour seems to have been canceled altogether!

I say “seems” because Batushka haven’t made an announcement about it, presumably looking to avoid embarrassment or be forced to come up with excuses to mask poor ticket sales. Meanwhile, if you visit Batushka’s official website and click on ticket links for any of the six Australian dates, all of the links either redirect to a ticketing agency’s homepage or lead to a page with an error message:

Certainly doesn’t bode well for Australian Poseur-tushka fans, nor for the band.

While it’s certainly possible there is some other issue at play here — illness of a band member, for example — that seems like the kind of the thing the band would have announced. Nevertheless, let’s see what happens next.