hospital for treatment of his leukaemia. The tour went ahead with Watain as the headlining act and included dates in Quebec, Washington, California, Texas, and New York. The tour was titled 'The Lawless States of Heretika Tour'. In February and March 2011, the band toured across Europe with Shining and Aosoth on the 'Death Holy Death Tour 2011'. This tour included shows in Denmark, Poland, France, Spain, as well as a five UK dates. Reception Critical reception The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. According to Eduardo Rivadavia, writing for AllMusic, "Lawless Darkness is black metal through and through, and Watain even make a point of retaining some cardboard-sounding drumbeats in honor of lo-fi pioneers like Venom and Bathory, ferchrissakes! This is why purists looking for their fix need only look to the pulverizing fury unleashed by 'Death's Cold Dark', 'Total Funeral', and 'Kiss of Death', or the Emperor-worthy melodies swirling madly across 'Hymn to Qayin', or the majestic glacial desolation of 'Malfeitor' and the instrumental title track. Finally, there's the ultimate swan dive into the abyss that is the 15-minute-long, all-encompassing 'Waters of Ain', which feels like a mini-album unto itself, and casts a blinding spotlight upon the full scale of Watain's latest, significant achievement for the advancement of black metal's cause." About.com was similarly favorable to the album, calling the album "Epic black metal that doesn't come off as over-indulgent" and "an accumulation of everything Watain has done on the past three albums". Pitchfork was slightly less favorable to the album, though still positive on the whole. Comparing it to Watain's previous album Sworn to the Dark, Pitchfork's Tom Breihan criticised the production, writing that "the cleaner production feels more compressed and less immersive, like they're attempting to bludgeon you with sheer loudness rather than suck you into their universe". However, Breihan finished his review by saying "Still, judged on its own merits, this is pretty powerful stuff. Occasionally, the band hits levels of all-out ferocity so absurd that they actually sound pretty. Danielsson has a truly great black-metal voice, a ravaged and demonic back-of-the-throat gargle that only occasionally says anything I can decipher ('Rivers of blood! Rivers of blood!'). When they chant, 'Hail! Beelzebub!' on 'Four Thrones', they sound like they mean it, which somehow makes the whole thing more fun. These freaks still know what they're doing, even if they're just treading bloody water