Swedish progressive metallers OPETH have been forced to cancel three shows on their ongoing North American tour due to acute laryngitis suffered by the band's frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt .

Åkerfeldt broke the news of the cancelation earlier today in a social media post. He wrote: "I regret to inform you that we have to cancel the following shows on the North American run: Worcester, Toronto and Montreal. The reason being 'acute laryngitis,' according to the doc.

"It all started with voice problems in Royal Oak, Michigan. I had a doctor take a look at me before that show, and even if he gave me the all-clear in terms of being free from flu symptoms and the likes, he couldn't dismiss potential problems with the vocal cords. Which indeed I had during Saturday's show. So we have a day off to rest during Sunday and arrived in sunny Worcester Monday morning to another doctor's appointment. This time the doctor advised a 3-4 day rest due to 'acute laryngitis.' We set the stage up and started getting ready for soundcheck anyways. As I was warming up my voice, it was abundantly clear that I was not going to be able to perform at the level where I want to be vocally. I sounded like a goddamn troll. And not in a good way.

"So, I'll end this rant with a massive apology to the people looking forward to tonight's event as well as to our Canadian friends. We are currently looking into postponing these cancelled shows and come back hopefully with a clean bill of vocal health and everything else. Try and make it up to you. In the meantime… I 'll watch TV. The joy!

"All ticket buyers can get a refund at their point of purchase if so desired but you can also opt to hang on to your tix as we're definitely intending to reschedule these shows and all purchased tickets will remain valid for these."

Affected dates:

Feb. 17 - Worcester, MA - Palladium

Feb. 18 - Montreal, QC - Mtelus

Feb. 19 - Toronto, ON – Rebel

OPETH is scheduled to resume its North American tour on February 21 in New York City.

The band is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, "In Cauda Venenum" , which was released in September via Moderbolaget / Nuclear Blast Entertainment . The disc landed at No. 13 on the U.K. chart and No. 5 on the German chart. The band's previous LP, 2016's "Sorceress" , peaked at No. 11 on the U.K. chart, while 2014's "Pale Communion" entered the list at No. 14 and 2011's "Heritage" landed at No. 22.