Bad news for upcoming Summer Slaughter audiences -- progressive metal act Periphery have been forced to drop out of the remaining Summer Slaughter dates due to a "family emergency."

Periphery have been steadily making a bigger name for themselves throughout 2012, with the release of their highly acclaimed sophomore album, 'Periphery II: This Time It's Personal' and their inclusion in some of metal's biggest worldwide festivals.

Periphery have been on the road with the 2012 Summer Slaughter Tour for a month, but the band will not be performing at the last handful of dates, siting a "family emergency" in their official announcement via Facebook:

Hello Peripherals and metal fans alike, it is with great regret that we must announcePeriphery‘s withdrawal from the rest of the Summer Slaughter tour, due to a family emergency we are unable to continue onto the west coast.

We also want to take this moment to thank all the amazing fans old and new who came out to support us on this awesome tour and we also want to thank all the bands we played with, Cerebral Bore, Exhumed, Goatwhore, Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, The Faceless, Between The Buried And Me, and Cannibal Corpse as well as all the amazing crew who made this tour happen – we miss all of you and we had the greatest summer ever hanging and jamming out with all of you. -P:.

Stay tuned for our upcoming video interview with Periphery guitarist Mark Holcomb from the band's gig at the 2012 Heavy MTL Festival in Montreal.

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