CANNIBAL CORPSE Offer Apology To German Fans!

CANNIBAL CORPSE have issued the following statement regarding the cancellation of their last show of the X-Mass Festivals at Alarm! in Zwickau, Germany (which was scheduled to take place on Saturday, December 22nd):

“We are deeply sorry to all the fans that attended the X-Mass Fest show at Alarm! in Zwickau, Germany wanting to see CANNIBAL CORPSE but it was due to reasons beyond our control that we were unable to play. Here's the story.

“The flights had been booked into and out of Amsterdam on the 23rd of Dec. because the tour promoter had said that would be fine, well aware of the fact that the last show was in eastern Germany. Also, some band members had early flights on the 24th to visit their families for the holidays, which were booked months ago so we had to fly home on the 23rd. The only available flight at the time that was also budget-friendly for the tour promoter (promoters always look for the cheapest flights, wouldn't you?) had a return flight time of 10:55 am. That means that we would need to be at the airport no later that 9:00 am due to the heightened airport security. We had re-worked the show schedule for Zwickau, so it would look something like this: VOMITORY, DARK FUNERAL, CANNIBAL CORPSE, KRISIUN, NILE, MARDUK. That would have us off stage by 9:15 PM and hopefully on the road by 10 PM. We NEEDED to be on the road by 10 PM. It's about a 10-hour drive with 2 bus drivers doing it legally (Europe has strict bus/truck driving laws),which would barely put us there in time. We were in Vienna, Austria the night before which was already a long drive and then we hit traffic and a snowstorm, which obviously delayed us quite a bit. All the buses arrived close to 9 PM. By the time the gear gets loaded in and the show is ready to start (even with CC playing first),it's too late for us to play and leave in time to make the flight especially while having to drive through a snow storm. The taxi van thing was an idea the promoter had, but then he decided HE didn't want to do it because of the cost. We never even saw the vans. The promoter pays us for the entire tour at the end of the tour so we had to settle up all the money. Then, we were all ready to go in the bus, but there was a money problem with the bus drivers and the promoter (he pays for the buses and drivers). The drivers wouldn't drive until the money situation between them was taken care of. This took a long time and is why the bus was there longer than it had to be and also put us on the road late. This is not something that was planned and did cause us to arrive at the airport late. Even if we had a later flight out of A'dam, we still wouldn't have been able to play with such a late arrival to Zwickau, because it would still put us on the road too late. And the snowstorm didn't help the situation at all. If it wasn't for the snowstorm, all bands would have been there on time and the show would have gone as planned. You can't predict a snow storm 2-3 months in advance while booking airline tickets and we did try to find other flights earlier but it's nearly impossible to change flights during the holiday/Christmas season because most flights are already fully booked. Those who know CANNIBAL CORPSE and their crew know that we do EVERYTHING possible to make a show happen and we also come back to play a show that we missed. CANNIBAL CORPSE will be back in Europe next year to support the new album, Gore Obssessed, due out in February 2002 and we will come back Zwickau. Once again, we are sorry for not being able to play and for any inconvienience this may have caused. CANNIBAL CORPSE and crew.”