CORROSION OF CONFORMITY and THE SWORD will co-headline a two-week American tour in November, opening November 2 at the Town Ballroom in Buffalo, New York and closing November 19 at Vinyl Music Hall in Pensacola, Florida. HIPPIE DEATH CULT open every night but one.
It is a pairing that makes sense on paper and probably more sense in a room: the North Carolina band who dragged hardcore into southern sludge, and the Austin outfit who spent a decade proving that riff worship could carry an actual narrative. Both trade in the same low, warm, fuzz-heavy register, and neither has ever needed a light show to sell it.
Pepper Keenan's statement was entirely in character. "Well well welll… to all the free thinkers and beer drinkers, the CORROSION train won't stop," the vocalist and guitarist said. "Everywhere all the time! Gonna be ripping with THE SWORD and HIPPIE DEATH CULT. See ya on the horizon. Let's fucking go!"
The run supports "Good God / Baad Man", the double album CORROSION OF CONFORMITY released April 3 through Nuclear Blast — their first new music in eight years. Grammy winner Warren Riker, whose credits run from Fugees to DOWN and CATHEDRAL, produced it across three studios: Blak Shak, Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, and Barry Gibb's home studio in Miami, which remains the most improbable line in the record's history. New Orleans artist Scott Guion painted the cover.
The reviews met the ambition. Decibel called it the band's most ambitious album to date in both length and material. Germany's Rock Hard reached for "Gesamtkunstwerk" — a total work of art — to describe a record it found resistant to easy categorisation. Metal Forces went further and argued that when METALLICA turned into U2 in the '90s, CORROSION OF CONFORMITY should have picked up the torch, calling Keenan, Woody Weatherman and company "criminally underrated".
The band arrive in November with a partly rebuilt rhythm section. Bassist Bobby "Rock" Landgraf and drummer Nick Shabatura are both recent additions; Shabatura, previously of DESECRATE THE HOUR, was brought in on Charlie Benante's recommendation and debuted behind the kit in April.
One date breaks the pattern: November 7 in Wilmington, North Carolina is CORROSION OF CONFORMITY only, part of the Port City Blitz Festival.
Tickets. An artist presale opens Tuesday, August 25 at 12 p.m. ET, password COC2026, through coc.com/pages/tour. A separate Blabbermouth.net presale runs from Wednesday, August 26 at 2 p.m. EDT to Thursday, August 27 at 10 p.m. local time, code BBMCOCSWORD. General on-sale opens Friday, August 28.
CORROSION OF CONFORMITY / THE SWORD U.S. tour 2026:
Nov. 02 – Buffalo, NY – Town Ballroom Nov. 03 – Asbury Park, NJ – Asbury Lanes Nov. 04 – Hampton Beach, NH – Hampton Beach Casino Nov. 06 – Virginia Beach, VA – Elevation 27 Nov. 07 – Wilmington, NC – Port City Blitz Festival (COC only) Nov. 08 – Harrisburg, PA – Capitol City Music Hall Nov. 10 – St. Louis, MO – The Sovereign Nov. 11 – Lawrence, KS – Granada Nov. 13 – Belvidere, IL – The Apollo Theatre Nov. 14 – Indianapolis, IN – The Vogue Nov. 15 – Cincinnati, OH – Bogart's Nov. 17 – Columbia, SC – The Senate Nov. 18 – Birmingham, AL – Workplay Nov. 19 – Pensacola, FL – Vinyl Music Hall
Source: blabbermouth.net