The Mark Of Cain Announce New Single And National Tour

South Australian hard-rock legends The Mark Of Cain have announced their return to the public conscious with the release of new single Grey-11, from their 2012 LP Songs Of The Third & Fifth, as well as laying out the details of their first national tour since March last year.

The forthcoming tour, which begins at Melbourne’s 170 Russell on Friday, October 31, includes the band’s first visit to Newcastle in 12 years as well as their first Hobart trip in nearly twenty. Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Coolangatta make up the remainder of the almost month-long tour’s destinations.

They’ll be joined by prodigious young drummer Eli Green for the run of shows, filling in for the band’s usual skinsmith, the US-based Battles/Tomahawk drummer John Stanier.

Grey-11, meanwhile, marks the third single from the band’s fifth LP, and boasts a short spoken-word contribution from renowned performer and activist Henry Rollins, with whom central members Kim and John Scott have been on good terms since 1990, when The Mark Of Cain first supported the Rollins Band in Adelaide.

“I wrote about someone coming back from a bad conflict anywhere, and that the thought of coming back to their family or girlfriend or boyfriend is what kept them going through Hell, only to find they've even betrayed by the very people they relied on - and who else would get that but Rollins, who tours war zones and visits combat casualties in Europe and the US?” John Scott said of the collaboration in a statement. “He wrote a middle verse that was spoken and I'd designed would be something I did or he could do if interested, and it turned out he was interested. Rollins gets us, he knows our shit. When called, he responded.”

If you're not familiar, you can hear the briefest tease of the new single in the tour teaser below:

The edited version of Grey-11 will be released for free digitally to all new and existing The Mark Of Cain mailing-list subscribers, as long as you get in before it gets sent out on August 11. See The Mark Of Cain’s website for info on subscribing.

Melburnian duo King Of The North join the tour as main support on most shows, with additional guest spots coming from Bruce (Wollongong), Turnpike (Brisbane), Scalphunter (Perth) and Captives (Hobart).

Tickets for The Mark Of Cain’s 2014 national tour – we can’t stress how rare an opportunity this is – will set you back $38+bf ($33+bf in Coolangatta, lucky) go on-sale next Friday, August 15, via the show venues and Oztix.

See the Gig Guide or check The Music App for more information.

After more from The Mark Of Cain? Have a blast through last year's 1000 Yards below.