Earache's With Passion Announces Break Up and Final Show

Earache artist With Passion has announced that they are playing their final show in Roseville, CA next month. The band released What We See When We Shut Our Eyes earlier this year but the band's tour (which included a show at Europa) fell completely apart. I think the band only played two dates on what was supossed to be a cross-country tour.


With Passion's lineup changed over between their first and second Earache CDs and the final original member, Mike Nordeen, left recently for The Human Abstract. The band has announced on their MySpace page that the remaining members are going back to their previous projects (Conducting From The Grave and Cyanide Era).

Here is the complete MySpace bulletin:
Yes, it's true. Sept. 22 is planned to be the last show we ever play as With Passion. Many of you seem very upset by this, but it is for the best and I will explain why...

We have been struggling to keep afloat in the business side of music for at least 2 years now. We had high hopes that our new album would pull us out of that struggle, but instead our album was released with less than expected promotion and distribution and we ended up unable to even get on the road to support it. It simply seems ridiculous for us to continue on under this name since, as many of you have noticed the last original member Mike Nordeen (bass) departed the line up about three months ago to go onto bigger and better things in The Human Abstract. Many of you are fans of our other/previous band Conducting From The Grave. John, Greg, and I have decided that we should continue again as CFTG and Steven, whom replaced Mike for the last two tours will be joining us on bass. Former vocalist of CFTG, Drew, will be completing the line-up for the band. Fidel will be returning to vocal duties in his previous band, Cyanide Era. We are now writing new material for Conducting From The Grave that should be posted online within the next couple months. We all believe that this decision is in our best interest as musicians and in our fans' best interest as well. We appreciate all of your support and we hope that all of you will continue to support us in these other musical projects.

-Jeff

If you have not heard of Conducting From The Grave or Cyanide Era, please check these links:
www.myspace.com/conductingfromthegrave
www.myspace.com/cyanideera

In summation, it seemed that two years ago when us CFTG dudes joined with Shaun and Mike that it was the best idea to solve both CFTG and With Passion's line up changes, but now since they have both quit and nothing is working out for us as far as tours and album promotion, it seems that this is the right time to let the name With Passion die. We will still continue to write metal together as Conducting From the Grave and play locally, but we don't plan on touring anytime soon. It's been good times and we appreciate all the support anyone has given to us and any previous line up of this band, and we hope to see as many of you at our last show as possible.

-John

With Passion Heading Back to CA and are Looking for a Show Along I-80

Following up on my previous post about With Passion's show at Club Europa in Brooklyn being canceled, it looks like the band's East Coast tour completely fell apart. The band posted the following to their web page:

So, the booking agent who booked this tour only came through with 2 dates on the way home from the east coast to California, but they are 6 days away (in Kansas City and Denver). So instead of sitting in a parking lot somewhere for 6 days we are just going to end up going home after our show tonight in Michigan. We would have started booking stuff on our own over a month ago but the booking agent assured us he would have shows for us, but he didn't pull through. We are sorry to anyone who planning on attending the shows in Denver and Kansas City but we can't afford to sit around in our van for 6 days. If anyone has a house show that is along Interstate 80 in the next 2 days or any kind of last minute show we can play email us please at withpassionmetal@yahoo.com

With Passion Show Canceled Tonight at Club Europa

With Passion's show at Club Europa is canceled tonight. The band posted the following message to their MySpace page:

We had two shows cancelled on us due to all the other bands dropping off this tour. We are on the east coast right now so if you can help us with a show last minute hit us up, we will play your backyard, basement, living room - anywhere there is room. The 24th we play at El N Gee in CT, and the 27th we play at Yesterdays in Wheeling WV, so if you can book us in between those dates in that vicinity even if its a house party show please hit us up. All we want is an oppourtunity to sell some merch because having days off sitting in Wal Mart parking lots all day is no fun when we could be playing shows. Thanks a lot.

If anyone can help the band out, please contact them through their MySpace page.

With Passion - What We See When We Shut our Eyes CD Review

Imagine a death metal band whose music is anchored by a guitarist that sounds like a Yngwe Malmsteen disciple. With Passion's music goes beyond the boundaries of technical death metal as the soaring guitar leads (which carry across all tracks) are closer to jazz-oriented power chords than the blistering speed metal of many tech-metal contemporaries. Across this disc, the music takes many twists, ranging from typical death metal stomp to soft melodic interludes -- often within the same song. The musical prowess of the band and diversity of sounds keeps this disc interesting through repeated listenings.

The band just finished filming their first video for the song "Pale Horse Rider" and have posted some stills from from the video shoot (link). The video is described as "dark and evocative, the shoot...capture(s) the band’s live performance coupled with a horror themed storyline that is sure to accentuate the eerie sentiment of the song." A release date for the video hasn't been announced but it looks like this will be something to watch for.

The band has just started a US tour and will be playing Club Europa in Brooklyn on April 23rd. I haven't (yet) seen the band play live but I have been watching some of the band's live clips on YouTube (below) and am looking forward to the show.

What We See When We Shut Our Eyes will be released on Earache on May 8, 2007.



Links:
Main Website (link)
MySpace Page (link)