Listen: Ne Obliviscaris Share Their “Tour Mishaps” Playlist
Citadel, the new album from Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris, might best be described by the words “gorgeous” and “captivating”: heavy and melodic, cinematic and proggy, and distinguished by violinist Tim Charles’ haunting, nuanced leads, Citadel is the kind of record which is destined to spawn a fiercely loyal following (and a million YouTube covers).
To celebrate the album’s November 11 release on Season of Mist, we asked the band to participate in our ongoing “Idol Listening” series, in which prominent metal musicians create Spotify playlists for your listening pleasure. The theme Ne Obliviscaris chose was “Tour Mishaps” — a potent reminder of metal’s ability to induce catharsis. When the going gets tough, the tough get Nevermore.
Listen to Ne Obliviscaris’ “Tour Mishaps” Spotify playlist below! If you’d like to know all the, um, “fun” stories behind the titular semi-catastrophes, the band has provided explanations for each song selection at the bottom of this post. You can stream Citadel in advance of its November 11 release here. Pre-order physical copies here and digital copies here.
Nevermore, “This Godless Endeavor” (2006) – In 2006, before we even had a demo out, we managed to secure a slot opening for one of our favorite bands at the time, Nevermore, when they played Sydney. We were in the car and halfway to the show when we got a call saying there had been a stuff-up with the venue — doors had to be pushed back one hour, and we were cut from the show. We were pretty devastated… That same weekend the final-ever Metal For the Brain Festival was taking place in Canberra, which was on the way to Sydney. This was the biggest metal festival in Australia at the time. We had heard a few days earlier that a band had pulled out, so we called up the promoter to check if they had ever filled that spot on the bill and let him know that we’d be in the area. After a quick discussion, he added us to the festival! At this festival a prominent metal promoter saw our set, loved it, and offered us a support slot with Suffocation shortly thereafter.
Suffocation, “Bind Torture Kill” (2007) – This show we only got because we played MFTB, which we only played because our spot supporting Nevermore was cancelled. So we started to see silver linings everywhere with this band. In the lead-up to the show, some of the local kvlt metal fans decided they weren’t happy with the choice of NeO opening for Suffocation, and distributed flyers that stated “Violins have no place in Metal,” and “Metal Street Thrashers Against Fags In Metal. Spread the hate. Spam For Satan. Death To False Metal!”… and included our email address on there. After all that fuss, we didn’t actually receive one hate email or get heckled once at the show, which went off without a hitch. But it definitely got a lot of people in the scene talking about us!
Soilwork, “The Chainheart Machine” (2010) – Benji [Baret, guitarist] was on holiday back home in France when his new Australian visa got denied a few weeks before we were to support Soilwork in Melbourne. We managed to get one of Benji’s guitar students, who had been taught some of our songs, to fill-in for the show on short notice. Benji ended up being stuck in France for fifteen months, and it was only after a lengthy battle with the Australian Migration Review Tribunal, and an appeal that included a petition signed by more than 4,000 NeO fans from across the world, that he was finally allowed back into Australia.
Nevermore, “The River Dragon Has Come” (2011) – Five years after getting our support slot was cancelled, Nevermore announced they were finally doing another Australian tour. We were booked to support them in our hometown of Melbourne, and were incredibly excited at the prospect of finally getting to play with them. Nevermore, however, promptly fell apart and broke up, and the tour got cancelled.
Devin Townsend, “Deadhead” (2013) – We got offered this show on four days notice, and Benji was set to be away in the far north part of Australia for a wedding the night before the show date. Because it was quite a remote area, there were no earlier flights he could book — but it still looked like it would work, because his flight was set to arrive in Melbourne in the afternoon. Unfortunately, his flight was delayed, and then shortly thereafter his phone died, so at soundcheck, one hour before our set, we still had no news if Benji was in Melbourne yet. Some of the guys in the band started freaking out that we were going to have to cancel what was one of the biggest shows we had ever done. Thankfully, he turned up about twenty minutes before we were due to play.
Between The Buried & Me, “White Walls” and The Contortionist, “Holomovement” (2013) – I made a habit of jumping off stage into the crowd during the breakdown in “And Plague Flowers The Kaleidoscope.” In Sydney, I ripped my black jeans to shreds jumping back over the crowd barrier. I only had one pair of black jeans with me on that tour, so I had our sound engineer Troy use gaffe tape to patch them back together for the show in Canberra the next night. Then, the night after that, performing with pants once again tapped together, I broke my heel jumping off stage into the middle of the circle pit. I managed to get back up on stage and finish the song (thankfully the last of the set), but I had to finish the tour sitting on a bar stool.
