While Heaven Wept recently announced that they would be cancelling their Midweek Mayhem/ProgPower USA Performance. Originally slated to perform on Wednesday, September 9th along side Halcyon Way, Voyager, and headliners Evergrey, this would have been While Heaven Wept’s only stateside performance supporting their recent release Suspended at Aphelion.
The following is a statement from While Heaven Wept guitarist/founder Tom Phillips:
“When it rains, it does indeed pour…
2015 has been a challenging year for While Heaven Wept already as many of you know, and the deluge continues: we sincerely regret to inform everyone that we will not be able to perform at Midweek Mayhem this year due to a plethora of unforeseen circumstances manifesting in the months since we confirmed our participation. The short of it is, no less than 4 band members have experienced windfalls on a personal level – significant promotions & life-altering career changes specifically – while this is great news on one hand, this also unfortunately impacts WHW in a not-so-great way…albeit temporarily.
We have long had a policy of “family first” within the band, and this applies here as well…but we have to take the fortunes with the drawbacks as they come…and the gist is though great things are happening in abundance on a personal level, the band members in question one-by-one had to pull out of this event (in one case, due to being shipped out of state for mandatory job training, others due to new jobs where no leave time has been accrued, etc). Initially we once again looked into surrogate musicians, and while this seemed to solve matters in at least one case, there’s no way we can replace more than half of the band and expect anyone, including ourselves to settle for an approximation of WHW – especially those spending their own hard-earned money expecting magic.
We’ve always made it a point to be extremely transparent about everything that we do, and this situation is no exception; Milton and company have been updated on the unexpected twists in this road along the way, and like I said, we discussed together going forward with a modified lineup for the show – but once faced with the prospect of replacing half of the band to make this happen somehow, it just seemed that the best move for all parties involved was to bout out, handle this as professionally and gracefully as possible, and congratulate our mates on their improved circumstances regardless of how disappointing this is for all of us.
I also wanted to convey that there’s no drama or BS here…everything is all good…we just can’t do the show THIS year. Milton has been nothing but supportive, understanding, and cool about all of this – and we are all extremely grateful for both that, as well as even being offered the opportunity to help kick off the ProgPower festivities this year.
I know there are some folks out there who were planning to attend Midweek Mayhem on account of us – all I can say is that we’re truly sorry that we can’t make this happen this year. I want to personally invite anyone who was attending specifically for us to reach out to me and we will figure out some way to make it right with you too. I also encourage you to attend regardless as Halcyon Way, Voyager, Evergrey are still going to slay, and I’m confident Milton will secure a suitable – perhaps even more desirable replacement for us as well.
Otherwise, for all who are wondering, YES we are still alive, YES there are some exciting twists and turns ahead, and YES there is a lot more music on the horizon – albums and concerts – but this isn’t the forum for discussing these, and it’s just a touch premature…I just want you all to know that despite all of the tribulations we have faced this year, it hasn’t weakened our resolve ultimately, and in fact, we’ll be back soon, more impassioned than ever…as the “fire” is still raging…despite the downpours. ”
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