SACRED REICH and VIO-LENCE will join forces for a special show on May 31 at The Regent in Los Angeles. Also appearing on the bill are EXCEL and SWORN ENEMY. SACRED REICH is currently in the studio recording its highly anticipated new studio album — the band's first in 23 years — titled "Awakening". Due this summer, the disc is being produced by Arthur Rizk, who has previously worked with CAVALERA CONSPIRACY, POWER TRIP and CODE ORANGE, among others. "Awakening" will mark SACRED REICH's first release since the return of drummer Dave McClain. SACRED REICH recently announced tour dates across Europe and the U.S. The "Awakening" European tour will cover all of Europe and will begin in November. SACRED REICH will play a string of dates in North America alongside IRON REAGAN, LEEWAY and ENFORCED in May and will visit Europe in July and August for festival appearances. McClain was a member of SACRED REICH from 1991 to 1995. He played on the "A Question" EP (1991) and the "Independent" (1993) and "Heal" (1996) albums before leaving to join MACHINE HEAD. The VIO-LENCE lineup that will appear is Los Angeles is the same one that will perform at the Oakland Metro in Oakland, California on April 13 and April 14: guitarist Phil Demmel, vocalist Sean Killian, bassist Deen Dell, drummer Perry Strickland and guitarist Ray Vegas. Although current MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn was part of VIO-LENCE's classic incarnation and played on the band's debut album, "Eternal Nightmare", he wasn't contacted about doing the comeback shows because "he's always really worked pretty hard to not talk about VIO-LENCE or include VIO-LENCE in the past," Demmel told Decibel magazine. "This is something we're doing without him. "When we closed VIO-LENCE back in 2003 when I joined MACHINE HEAD, I was actually gonna write a VIO-LENCE record and shortly after I joined MACHINE HEAD, I was told that I couldn't do that," Phil added. "So Robb, he played in that last show and even his involvement in that last VIO-LENCE show back in 2003 was kinda… there are some memories from all of us about him being involved and playing the benefit with Sean that was something special and he got to sing. We will do like we have done before, move on, without him." Flynn last played with VIO-LENCE in January 2018 at a benefit concert for Killian at The Midway in San Francisco, California. The event concluded with a performance of the VIO-LENCE classic "World In A World" featuring four-fifths of the band's classic lineup — Flynn, Demmel, Strickland and Dell, with Flynn handling lead vocals. (Killian could not perform with the other members due to his health condition). Demmel landed in MACHINE HEAD in 2003, about a decade after original the breakup of VIO-LENCE. He left MACHINE HEAD at the end of the band's fall 2018 North American tour, explaining in a statement that it was "simply time" for him "to step away and do something else musically."
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