SHAI HULUD IN 3D > AVATARD

Yep yep — Shai Hulud, one of the rare bands to give metalcore a good name (and one of the rare bands to actually combine metal with hardcore and therefore be worthy of the “metalcore” tag), are doing a headlining tour. I’m not really familiar with the support acts so I can’t actively endorse your arriving early at the show — I mean they could be great for all I know, I just don’t wanna tell you they are when I don’t know their music — but I will say that if you have a chance to go see Shai Hulud and you don’t, you’re a fool. A damn fool, I say.

Perhaps better news still, at least for those of us who don’t live near one of these tour stops, is that the trek is actually a break from the band’s work on a new album — their first since 2008’s jugular-rippingly good Misanthropy Pure. It’s funny, ’cause like five minutes ago, I was feeling really cynical about 2011 as a good year for metal, but not it seems like a bright, bright, bright, sunshiny day.

Here are tour dates, in case you’re too stoopid to be able to read the poster at the top of this article:

02/02 Allentown, PA @ Crocodile Rock
02/03 Cleveland, OH @ Peabody’s
02/04 Altoona, PA @ The Archway Center
02/05 Pittsburgh, PA @ Smiling Moose
02/06 Columbus, OH @ Seven Venue
02/07 Portage, IN @ Camelot Arena
02/08 Bloomington, IN @ Rhino’s
02/09 Sauget, IL @ Pop’s
02/10 Memphis, TN @ The Hi-Tone Café
02/11 Cookeville, TN @ Amps and Ramps
02/12 Chattanooga, TN @ The Warehouse
02/13 Whitesburg, KY @ Letcher County Tourism Building
02/15 West Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
02/16 Jermyn, PA @ Eleanor Rigby’s
02/17 Revere, MA @ Wonderland Ballroom
02/18 Norwich, CT @ The Montessori School
02/19 Manchester, NH @ Rocko’s

-AR