BEHEMOTH's Concert In Poznan Canceled For 'Political' Reasons

October 6, 2014

Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH have slammed a university in their home country after their concert was canceled for what the band claims were political reasons.

The group was originally set to perform on October 2 at Poznan's Eskulap venue, which also serves as a student dormitory at Poznan University Of Medical Sciences, described as "a leading Polish medical centre with over 80 years of academic experience." The concert was eventually moved to October 6 after the university authorities decided that the the original date coincided with the start of the academic year.

On Friday, BEHEMOTH's promoter received a letter from Jacek Wysocki, president of Poznan University Of Medical Sciences, stating the event would not go ahead due to "a concern for the safety of students and campus workers."

BEHEMOTH responded in a statement: "We have no doubt it is a political decision. It's not the first clampdown on national artists. Poznan, instead of being a free culture centre, begins to resemble Russia."

The band went on to cite Article 73 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland which guarantees freedom of artistic creation and scientific research, as well as free access to cultural goods. In addition, the group explained it was forced to give up alternative arrangements, saying: "After a closer inspection, we decided the quality of our concert would suffer too much. We can't afford that at this stage of our career. We sincerely hope our fans will understand."

In 2011, BEHEMOTH frontman Adam "Nergal" Darski was acquitted in Poland on charges he insulted religious sentiment when he called the Catholic Church "the most murderous cult on the planet" during the band's September 2007 performance in Gdynia and tore up a copy of the Bible, calling it "a book of lies."

More recently, BEHEMOTH was ordered to leave Russia in May of this year after being detained in Yekaterinburg for violating the country's visa regulations.

BEHEMOTH's concerts in Khabarovsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar were canceled following a string of protests by Christian activists. According to The Moscow Times, unidentified thugs prevented the musicians from taking the stage in Novosibirsk and beat up concertgoers, local media reported.

Post by P.W. Events - koncerty.

behemotheskulapposter2014

Find more on Behemoth

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).