NE OBLIVISCARIS Frontman XEN To Sit Out North American Tour, BLACK CROWN INITIATE's JAMES DORTON Filling In

Ne Obliviscaris will hit the road in North America next month with Beyond Creation and The Omnific. The tour was initially planned to include progressive death metallers Persefone, but the band first dropped off the tour and later parted ways with their vocalist of nearly 20 years.

Now, in another unexpected turn of events, we learned that Ne Obliviscaris vocalist Xen will be absent from the tour due to illness, which is not that unexpected considering he also missed the band’s recent European tour, due to "issues with his own health and wellbeing". 

The replacement for Xen will be Black Crown Initiate singer James Dorton, as per the band’s statement which can be seen below.

"As many of you may know, Xen was unable to take part in our European tour in May this year due to issues with his own health and wellbeing that took priority at that time. When it came time to plan for upcoming tours Xen was up front that he wasn’t quite sure what he would be able to manage, so we agreed to take things one tour at a time."

"Whilst it was incredible to have him back on stage with us for our recent Australian tour earlier this month, we understand 4 shows in your home country is not quite the same as 31 shows in 6 weeks on the other side of the world. With that in mind Xen has decided that unfortunately he is not able to perform on the upcoming North American tour. We are grateful that the incredible James Dorton (Black Crown Initiate, The Faceless), who has been on standby just in case, has agreed to join us once more after an amazing run of shows together in Europe earlier this year."

"We’re really excited knowing that James already knows the show back to front and did such an amazing job with us earlier in the year. The feedback from fans was simply immense and having James do this upcoming USA & Canadian shows allows us the chance to still put on incredible shows for all of our fans there, whilst also allowing Xen the time he needs to focus on what is most important for him right now. This then creates the best chance for him to join us for all tours in 2024 and beyond, which is definitely the plan."

"Next week marks the beginning of our first tour across USA & Canada in almost 5 years and we can't wait to get back and perform for you all. We’ll be playing a 100 minute set featuring plenty of stuff from our new album Exul in addition to songs from each of our albums. A bunch of shows are close to selling out and others selling fast and we hope to see you there."