Shihad | Nationwide Tour of New Zealand

Aotearoa icons of heavyweight riffage Shihad are celebrating the release of their tenth studio album Old Gods with four headline dates across the nation in September and October. Beloved by multiple generations of fans and responsible for no less than five Number One studio albums in New Zealand (The General Electric, Pacifier, Beautiful Machine, Ignite and 2014's FVEY), the veteran team of Jon Toogood (The Adults), Tom Larkin, Phil Knight and Karl Kippenberger will be back in their element when they storm stages in the main centres on their This Is The Sound Of An Empire Falling tour. Unless you've been kept shackled in a dungeon out of radio earshot for the past thirty years, you'll be well aware Shihad have gifted us such era-defining anthems as 'My Mind's Sedate', 'You Again', 'Derail' and daylight savings time favourite 'Home Again', while their amped-up 2020 rendition of Split Enz’s ‘I Got You’ spent a gobsmacking 26 weeks at the top of the NZ Rock Radio charts. Don't even think of missing the mighty music legends' furious return on the following dates…

“I don’t think FVEY even compares with the anger I feel now with what’s going on... I wrote that before Trump was in power. There’s been some real dark shit happen, worse than what I could have imagined.” — Jon Toogood speaking about Shihad's new album 'Old Gods'.

Shihad - This Is The Sound Of An Empire Falling

Thursday 29th September - Glenroy Auditorium, Dunedin

Friday 30th September - Spark Arena, Auckland (The Rock 2000)

Saturday 1st October - Hunter Lounge, Wellington

Sunday 2nd October - James Hay, Christchurch

Shihad’s origins date back to 1985, when guitarist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin formed the group in high school. By mid-1988, with the addition of a bassist and guitarist, the group began playing live. According to legend, while covering the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK during their debut performance, they blew out the club’s PA system. Shihad’s debut EP, Devolve, appeared in mid-1991 and reached the NZ Top 20. By 1993, their sound had grown more industrial; influenced by the likes of Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten, the group even began experimenting with samplers. The results were immediately positive – not only did their LP Churn reach the Top 10, but the single I Only Said hit #3. 1999’s The General Electric, which went double platinum in New Zealand, would be the band’s last outing under the Shihad moniker for some time. Releasing music in the early 2000s under their nom de plume Pacifier, they returned to operating full-time as Shihad with the release of the 2005 politically charged album Love Is the New Hate.

If anger is an energy, then Old Gods, Shihad’s 10th studio album, could singlehandedly power a New Zealand city for a year.