Montréal, Québec-based metallers PRIESTESS are releasing their highly anticipated sophomore record in Canada on October 20th via Indica Records/Red Ink. The punishing eleven-song effort, entitled Prior To The Fire, was recorded in LA in the fall of 2008 and produced by Dave Schiffman (SYSTEM OF A DOWN, NINE INCH NAILS, MARS VOLTA).

BraveWords.com can reveal the cover art below:

BraveWords.com is celebrating the release of Prior To The Fire, by offering up exclusive ticket's to the band's private party/record launch being held on October 14th in Toronto, Ontario!

The first ten (10) people to email contests@bravewords.com win! It's as simple as that. We will tell you (and a friend) where the party is soon - it's a secret right now!

Priestess are about to hit the road in support of the album and this will be their first headlining coast-to-coast Canadian tour. The tour kicks off November 4th in Charlottetown and ends at the beginning of December. The Los Angeles based band EARLY MAN will be supporting Priestess on all the dates after November the 11th.

According to Priestess's frontman Mikey Heppner, the band couldn't be more stoked to finally be going back out on the road "When we were writing the songs that would make up Prior to the Fire we really meant for them to be heard live. We just can't wait to finally get on tour again and really do them justice – which is playing them live."

Check out Priestess' complete itinerary below.

Prior To The Fire will also be released in the US in early 2010.

Prior To The Fire tracklisting:

'Ladykiller'

'Raccoon Eyes'

'The Firebird'

'Murphy's Law'

'The Gem'

'Communicating Via-Eyes'

'Lunar'

'It Baffles The Mind'

'Sideways Attack'

'We Ride'

'Trapped In Space And Time'

Priestess tour dates:

November

4 - Charlottetown - Hunter's Ale House
5 - Fredericton - Nicky Zees
6 - Moncton - The Manhattan Club
7 - Halifax - Paragon
11 - Waterloo - Starlight
12 - London - Call The Office
13 - Kingston - Bar None
14 - Peterborough - Montreal House
18 - Quebec City - Chez Dagobert
19 - Montreal - National
20 - Ottawa - Mavericks
21 - Toronto - Lee's Palace
22 - Hamilton - ROK BAR
24 - Thunder Bay - Black Pirates Pub
25 - Winnipeg - Pyramid
26 - Regina - Distrkt
27 - Calgary - Distillery
28 - Edmonton - Starlite
30 - Whistler - GLC

December

1 - Victoria - Sugar
2 - Nanaimo - Queens
3 - Vancouver - Commodore
4 - Portland - Dante's
5 - Seattle - The Comet (21+)
8 - Minneapolis - 7th Street Entry
9 - Chicago - Empty Bottle
10 - Windsor - Blind Dog
11 - Buffalo - Mohawk