American death metal outfit Whitechapel were booked to appear at 2014’s Soundwave Festival, but a family tragedy meant they had to pull out at the last minute. Naturally, this caused some consternation amongst their many Australian fans. Most understood, of course, that family comes first, and that the band would be back at some stage.

That time has now come, as Whitechapel recently announced they would be playing three co-headline shows down the eastern seaboard in early September. Rhythm guitarist Alex Wade, speaking from his home in Lowville, Tennessee, is regretful about having to pull out of the Soundwave jaunt, but very happy to be coming back a little later than expected.

“We’re excited to be able to come back and make those shows up for our Aussie fans that missed us because we had to cancel the Soundwave shows,” he says. “We were really bummed out about that situation because our hands were tied and there really wasn’t anything we could do, and ultimately we decided that we had to cancel. That was what we had to do at the time, but we’re just excited that we can come back and make it up to a few of the cities down there.”

With all the excitement of the Soundwave 2015 first round announcements happening recently, you would have been forgiven for thinking Whitechapel merely would have traded their place on the 2014 tour for next year’s version. But Wade says this was never really a realistic option, and their own tour was the more suitable solution.

“I’m not sure that was really on the cards,” he says. “If we were offered it, we would absolutely love to do the tour again, so hopefully we’ll get the offer for that next year [for 2016].”

And while this run may not be Soundwave, they are bringing another absolute luminary of American heavy music with them – Dez Fafara and his band, DevilDriver – for what promises to be a blistering heavyweight double bill. The two groups have done quite a bit of touring together previously, and have become great friends, so the Australian visit is sure to be a rollicking good time for all concerned.

“We’re really excited to be playing Australia with those guys,” says Wade. “We did a full US and Canadian tour with DevilDriver, and that went over really well in North America, so I’m excited to see how well it does in Australia.

“I’m sure we’ve played with them quite a bit in the past. The first time we played shows with them and really got to know them was in 2013– we played a couple of off-day shows on a European festival run with DevilDriver. We got to know them through playing those small clubs in Europe with them, and we had a great time. So when they did a headline tour of their own, they took us out as direct support. And it went over really well.”

Whitechapel now have five albums to their name, and they pride themselves on playing a broad cross-section of material in all of their live sets to keep fans, old and new, happy.

“We’re not one of those bands that just plays the whole new record and doesn’t play old songs. We always make sure we have a good mix. With every new album we release it gets harder and harder to write a good setlist, because our sets aren’t necessarily getting any longer. But we always try to do a good mix.”

Our Endless War out now through Metal Blade / Rocket. They’re playing alongsideDevilDriver atThe Hi-Fi onSaturday September 6, tickets online.

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