30 July 2021 - 0 Comments

Shihad are coming home again! New Zealand’s own Shihad are returning for some very special shows, touring their latest album Old Gods this November across Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

Tickets go on sale at 12pm, Friday August 6.

Vodafone customers can be the first to secure tickets during the Vodafone presale beginning 12pm Tuesday August 3. Go to Vodafone.co.nz/music for more information.

My Live Nation members can get tickets through the presale beginning 1pm Thursday August 5 until 11am Friday August 6.

For complete tour and ticket information, visit: livenation.co.nz

Shihad have also released a new single today, Little Demons, from their upcoming 10th studio album Old Gods, available on August 27th.

Little Demons is a protest song in Drop G, showcasing Jon Toogood’s rousing lyrics backed by the sonic apocalypse of Shihad’s signature emotive power. Little Demons was one of the first songs on the album that lyricist and frontman Jon Toogood wrote words for after seeing a TV debate featuring an Australian Liberal Party politician telling an Aboriginal woman to “call the police and have them hauled away” when she experiences racist threats.

“It’s got all the ideas thrown into one, with probably my favourite chorus on the whole record” says Toogood. Little Demons follows on from the upcoming album’s opening track Tear Down Those Names which Rolling Stone called “Shihad at their most direct and powerful”.

Shihad’s origins date back to 1985, when guitarist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin formed the group in high school. By mid-1988, with the addition of a bassist and guitarist, the group began playing live. According to legend, while covering the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK during their debut performance, they blew out the club’s PA system. Shihad’s debut EP, Devolve, appeared in mid-1991 and reached the NZ Top 20. By 1993, their sound had grown more industrial; influenced by the likes of Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten, the group even began experimenting with samplers. The results were immediately positive – not only did their LP Churn reach the Top 10, but the single I Only Said hit #3. 1999’s The General Electric, which went double platinum in New Zealand, would be the band’s last outing under the Shihad moniker for some time. Releasing music in the early 2000's under their nom de plume Pacifier, they returned to operating full-time as Shihad with the release of the 2005 politically charged album Love Is the New Hate.

2014 saw the release of FVEY, the band’s fifth #1 album in New Zealand, and if you thought that was peak fury, you ain’t heard nothin’ yet:

“I don’t think FVEY even compares with the anger I feel now with what’s going on,” says frontman Jon Toogood. “I wrote that before Trump was in power. There’s been some real dark shit happen, worse than what I could have imagined.”

If anger is an energy, then Old Gods, Shihad’s 10th studio album, could singlehandedly power a New Zealand city for a year.

SHIHAD
NEW ZEALAND 2021

JAMES HAY, CHRISTCHURCH
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 23

SHED 6, WELLINGTON
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 25

THE FACTORY, HAMILTON
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 26

POWERSTATION, AUCKLAND
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 27

TICKETS ON SALE 12PM FRIDAY AUGUST 6
My Live Nation presale: 1pm Thursday August 5 until 11am Friday August 6

For complete tour and ticket information, visit livenation.co.nz

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