The great metal trio High On Fire were planning to spend this fall on tour with their metal peers Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust, and Haunt. But now High On Fire have been forced to drop off the tour for an extremely scary reason: Frontman Matt Pike is having a toe partially amputated. Here’s a statement from High On Fire:

Matt has a medical emergency culminating in the partial amputation of one of his toes. The scheduling of this procedure is immediate and the recovery time will overlap our intended tour with MW. We will unfortunately be unable to participate in this tour but will be back stronger than ever in 2019!

And here’s a supportive statement from Municipal Waste, who will be heading out on tour without High On Fire:

First and foremost we wish our friend Matt the best of luck with his recovery. We need him, the metal world in general needs him. We would much rather have him miss a tour to heal up rather than not having any more Matt Pike music in the future. High on Fire ‘s new album is amazing and we love him and his band mates so much. That being said after much discussion us Toxic and Haunt are still going to do the tour. It just makes sense, why make something negative worse? Get better Matt we love you.

Pike should be on top of the world right now. He’s a crucial part of two of 2018’s best metal albums: High On Fire’s new Electric Messiah and The Sciences, the reunion album from the legendary stoner-metal power trio Sleep. Fingers crossed for him; a toe amputation sounds serious and horrendous.