Massachusetts’ The Acacia Strain are proud to announce a summer 2008 headlining tour across the United States. Dubbed the ‘Sun Your Bunz’ Tour, and featuring support from All Shall Perish, The Warriors, Eternal Lord and Since The Flood, the tour with cross America from late-May into late-June. A tour admat is also available online here .

The run will be in anticipation of The Acacia Strain’s forthcoming album, Continent, which is scheduled for release later this year through Prosthetic Records.

Meanwhile, the band has posted a pre-production song entitled “Dr. Doom” from Continent on The Acacia Strain’s MySpace page. The band will head into the studio April 13 with producer Zeuss (Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, Municipal Waste) at Planet Z studio, and pre-production for Continent has already been completed. For Continent, The Acacia Strain has again tapped artist Paul Romano (Mastodon, The Red Chord, Trivium), who handled the artwork for the band’s previous release, The Dead Walk, which saw a June 2006 release via Prosthetic Records.

Having just played a handful of Canadian shows in March as well as completing a successful headlining tour with Despised Icon, Full Blown Chaos, and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza in November and December of 2007, The Acacia Strain will also play a hometown show April 26 in Worcester, Mass. as part of the 10th annual New England Metal and Hardcore Festival.

The Acacia Strain on tour

4/26 Worcester, MA – The Palladium (New England Metal and Hardcore Festival)

(Sun Your Bunz Tour with All Shall Perish, The Warriors, Since The Flood)

5/30 Buffalo, NY – Michalina’s Bistro

5/31 Kettering, OH – The Attic Club

6/01 Warren, MI – The Ritz

6/02 Chicago, IL – Reggie’s Rock Club

6/03 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock Social Club

6/05 Fargo, ND – Aquarium

6/06 Omaha, NE – Sokol Underground

6/07 Denver, CO – Marquis Theatre

6/09 Boise, ID – The Venue

6/10 Spokane, WA – The Boulevard

6/11 Seattle, WA – Studio Seven

6/12 Portland, OR – Satyricon

(Sun Your Bunz Tour with All Shall Perish, Eternal Lord, Since The Flood)

6/13 Orangevale, CA – The Boardwalk (with The Warriors)

6/14 Anaheim, CA – Chain Reaction

6/15 San Bernardino, CA – Hudson Theatre

6/16 Bakersfield, CA – Jerry’s Pizza

6/18 Tucson, AZ – The Rock

6/19 El Paso, TX – Chic’s Bar and Billiards

6/20 Austin, TX – Red 7

6/21 Lewisville, TX – Fat Daddy’s Sound Shack

6/22 Tulsa, OK – Crush Lounge

6/24 Nashville, TN – The Muse

6/26 Fredericksburg, VA – KC’s Music Alley

6/27 Lemoyne, PA – Champion Ship

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“Technically adept, and perhaps even challenging to the unseasoned metal listener, The Dead Walk is clearly the strongest effort to date from New England scene stars The Acacia Strain.” – Alternative Press magazine

“It’s The Acacia Strain’s rationale that makes them somewhat of a standout: there isn’t an established category called “Heavy As Fuck.” – Unrestrained! magazine

“It could be one of the big extreme releases of the year…the guys have streamlined their sound and their lineup, creating a solid disc heavy on breakdowns and with no shortage of metal riffs all over the place.” – Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles magazine

“Think the oppressive groove of Mastodon with the stodgy beats of Throwdown, and the hellish screams of your childhood nightmares. This is the sort of noise that makes dogs whimper, mountains shudder, babies cry and your mates dance – all at the same time.” – Metal Hammer magazine

“Quite clearly the art of sophisticated bloodthirsty tech metal is entering a new renaissance period and it is albums like this that are leading the charge.” – The PRP

Of course, this is the expected mix of skittish, jagged off kilter chaos littered with crumbling grooves and harsh hardcore shouts and its done very well, with more than enough moments of speaker wilting heft amid the discordant caterwauling, but there’s not enough to keep me coming back or completely rip my face off like the aforementioned label mates.

Part of the hindrance is mostly non musical as the comedic interludes that litter the album (“T.R.O.U.B.L.E. (Intro Skit)”, “Top English (Midget Pool Skit)”, “Shot of Whiskey (Beginning of the End Barfight Skit)” and “Louisiana Dive Bar Massacre (Sawin’ Bones and Chuggin’ Brew Outro Skit)”) though break up the continual surge of spazzing down-tuned histrionics, might be funny to those in the band on in on the joke, otherwise serve as pointless voids of filler, so them there’s only 9 actual tracks of the frantic, bladder squeezing music.

Musically, TTDTE really aren’t to different from many of the bands plying this form of modern tech/grind/hardcore, granted they are not as annoying or grating but they also don’t really standout out as they seem to rely on their humor and self deprecating, trailer park imagery to make them stand out from the pack. That being said, tracks like “Carroll 14 Wosman 7”, “Nobody Eats Barbeque Two Days is a Row” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin’ on Satan’s Rotisserie” deliver short brutal bursts of earthy produced discordance that the kids will love.