ATHEIST's Kelly Shaefer has issued the following road update:

"What a rash of fucking nightmares as well, in true Atheist fashion, we always seem to have these strange things happen to us whilst touring. The night before I was leaving for The Brutal Assault festival in Czech Republic, I started fucking shaking and sweating and my throat was killing me, like really bad, so I just sort of flew over and hoped for the best, but upon arriving at the fest, I really was fatigued, and feeling shitty, so much so that Flynn went looking for a doctor so we could get me some antibiotics. He found one across from the hotel, and with the assistance of an interpreter, we managed to find out according to them I had a severe throat infection, but they referred to it as 'Angina' which has heart implications etc, so we are freaking out because they are telling me you have to rest constantly, no singing, no drinking, nothing...so CLEARLY, that was not going to be possible with a run of dates just getting started, not to mention a trip to Amsterdam, you are telling me I cant smoke out in Holland. I say fuck that, but I did not drink for the whole tour till the very end of my antibiotics which was in Finland, so it turns out in Europe, Angina is basically Strep throat, and there were no reasons to worry about heart issues....yikes close call!

So while I was in a ton of pain, we got through the first two shows, and truthfully it went better than if I has been drinking, I feel like my screams were stronger etc. Drinking just always happens with me at shows so to not drink was a great experiment for me, and it turned out to be a great wake up call for me.

Many thanks to all the people who came from around the world to the Brutal Assault festival, it was a really well done event, except there was a mix up about how long we were to play so instead of us playing an extra 20 minutes, we were accidentally cut 20 minutes, so we apologize to the fans who expected a longer set - we expected to play longer as well, and we will be back next year to make it up to you. Many thanks to our good friend and promoter Thomas for the great hospitality. Many great things happened on this night and we saw many friends old and new including THE FACELESS and the SUFFOCATION guys. But probably the most important meeting of the trip was between myself and one Patrick Mameli from PESTILENCE. As many of you know we have not exactly been the best of friends since 1991. Many daggers have been thrown by the both of us, and at the end of the day we were both right to be angry with one another. We had a very needed discussion about all of that shit backstage at the Brutal Assault fest, and Steve Flynn also had a 45 minute talk with him as well. We parted as friends, and that is a lot more positive then harbouring anger for so many years, we are cool with Pestilence, and we all actually had a great time discussing the old days and the future of our bands playing together, they're guitar player Patrick also came to our show in Zandaam which was very cool. so. The Technical X-tacy tour may soon enough happen!

Also saw OPETH for the first time and I must eat my words on this band...I had not really understood why they were being handed the torch of greatness all of the time...but I now know why, it was masterful, and I cant say enough about the drummer FUCK he was amazing on this night. It was pure fucking torture to not be able to drink my bottle of Jager in the dressing room LOL it was just sitting there next to the Red Bull saying 'bro, c'mon let's get together and fucking light it up,' but no could do. I needed to get healthy...and quick cause this was going to be a journey I needed to get healthy for. The venue by the way was this incredible old Russian military base I think , and it was very moody, great location! SO first show in the bag and off to Holland we go! I will try to have it up tomorrow, so many details so little time!"