Vio-lence Accidentally Became a Cover Band in Australia

At what point is a band no longer the band you paid money to see? Is it when one of the founding members aren’t present? Half of the band? That question crept up to the forefront over the weekend, as fans that attended the Vio-lence show in at Max Watt’s House Of Music in Melbourne, Australia technically saw the band perform, just without any original members present on stage.

This past Saturday, Vio-lence were set to take the stage for the final date of their “Aussie Thrashfest 2023” tour with Sacred Reich when vocalist Sean Killian became sick and couldn’t perform. Rather than simply not playing at all, the band recruited Truth Corroded’s Jason North to take Killian’s spot on stage.

For those keeping score, that means the band was comprised of North, Exmortus’ Adrian Agullar on drums, Voidbringer/Interloper guitarist Miles Dimitri Baker, bassist Christian Olde Wolbers, and Metal Church guitarist Ira Black.

We don’t know what Killian came down with that forced him from performing, but given his past stance on vaccines, it’s not entirely shocking that he was forced to miss a date.

Vio-lence has had a number of lineup shakeups in recent weeks, with founding member and drummer Perry Stickland unceremoniously revealing he’s no longer in the band via social media and guitarist Bobby Gustafson walking away due to touring not being “cost effective anymore.” And though the band managed to find fill-ins to help complete their commitments down under, it’s all got guitarist Phil Demmel “torn” about how much longer the band can continue on, saying he’s going to be scaling back the number of shows he does with the band. That being said, he’s going to be in the lineup for their upcoming shows at the Hell’s Heroes V pre-party on March 23 in Houston and the Milwaukee Metal Fest this May.

So what say you, heavy metal philosophists: was the band that performed this past Saturday still technically Vio-lence or was it not? Think of it like the thrash metal equivalent of the Ship of Theseus thought experiment.