Testament Cancel Tour Plans

San Francisco Bay Area thrashers TESTAMENT have announced the cancellation of their appearance at the Live 'N' Louder Rock Fest, set to take place October 12 at the Estádio do Canindé in São Paulo, Brazil.

"After pulling out of the October 15 concert in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the band have now decided to call off their entire Latin American/Mexican tour, which was to include stops in Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The reason for cancelling the tour, according to the band, is that a new guitar player was not found in time for rehearsals, and all options were exhausted.

"The band had first announced 'Metal' Mike Chlasciak (HALFORD, PAINMUSEUM, SEBASTIAN BACH) as the fill-in guitarist for the tour. They then 'replaced' him with Derrick Ramirez, who had previously played with the band when they were still called LEGACY.

"When it became clear that Derrick would not be able to do the tour, the festival organizers offered to find TESTAMENT a Brazilian guitar player to replace him, going as far as to suggest a few names. However, the band's management wasn't interested and the group refused to make an effort to come down and do the tour. Meanwhile plane tickets for the band had already been paid for and TESTAMENT's money had already been sent.

"This is the third time TESTAMENT have cancelled their Latin American tour.

"To replace TESTAMENT, German thrash metal icons DESTRUCTION have been recruited to play the Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre dates. As a result, DESTRUCTION will now kick off their world tour in South America in support of their acclaimed new album, 'Inventor of Evil'."