Animals as Leaders Cancel Upcoming Shows Due to 'Serious' Injury, Issue Statement

Animals as Leaders have canceled some of their upcoming shows due to a "serious" injury sustained by drummer Matt Garstka. The band issued a statement addressing what happened.

The group had a batch of tour dates scheduled in Mexico, South America and Australia throughout August and September. Because Garstka's injury requires surgery to treat it, they had to cancel all of the dates.

It's unclear at this time when they'll be able to make up the canceled dates. In their statement, they shared that they'll dedicate the time to working on new music. Read it in full below.

To our fans in Mexico, South America and Australia,

We have some unfortunate news. We're going to have to cancel our upcoming tour dates. Matt sustained a serious arm injury that requires surgery, and there's no way we can perform without him.

Rather than leave things up in the air, we're calling it now and putting our full focus into writing the next Animals as Leaders album. New material is already in the works, and we'll have more to share soon.

We know this news sucks — especially for those of you who've been waiting a long time to see us live. Canceling isn't something we take lightly. Thank you for sticking with us. We'l make it back to your cities with new music and a set that hits even harder.

What Was Animals as Leaders' Last Album?

Animals as Leaders' latest album Parrhesia came out in March of 2022, so it's been over three years since we've heard a full set of new material from them. Their last show took place May 31, and prior to that they were on tour in Europe in February and March.

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They'd already started working on their next album around that time, according to an interview guitarist Tosin Obasi did with Guitar World. 

"We are about to begin pre-production on an album. We do have some touring – we're headed to Europe in a few weeks – but I want to spend a portion of this year writing the record. In a perfect world, it'll be written and recorded by the end of this year," he said.

Perhaps it'll be finished earlier than they anticipated now.