The American and Canadian Carnage Tour, featuring SLAYER, MEGADETH, and TESTAMENT, have been cancelled due to SLAYER‘s Tom Araya needing to undergo back surgery.

Araya began experiencing back problems while on the band’s Australian/New Zealand/Japanese tour last October. Upon returning from that tour, he saw an orthopedic specialist who diagnosed a Cervical Radiculopathy. Initially declining surgery, the specialist recommended a series of minimally-invasive procedures. While those procedures have resulted in some improvement, Araya continues to deal with intermittent bouts of severe pain, numbness and muscle spasms. The surgical procedure that Araya will undergo, called an Anterior Cervical Discectomy with Fusion, is a relatively routine practice and the recovery rate is excellent.

SLAYER manager Rick Sales commented, “Tom gave various medical treatments more than a fair shot, but they just haven’t handled the problem, so he’s biting the bullet and is scheduled for back surgery at the end of this month. As unfortunate as this is for so many people – the MEGADETH and TESTAMENT camps, the concerts’ promoters, and, of course, the fans – Tom‘s health is the number one priority, and this has to happen.”

The tour, which was set to kick off January 18th, will be rescheduled. Tickets already purchased for those shows will be honored at the rescheduled dates.