DIMMU BORGIR Accuses HELL Of Embezzlement, Threatens Lawsuit

October 14, 2008

Norwegian symphonic black metallers DIMMU BORGIR have accused the organizers of Norway's Hell Music Festival of embezzling 70,000 Norwegian kroners (approximately $11,500) from the band's merchandise sales proceeds, according to the newspaper Stjørdalens Blad.

The dispute stems from DIMMU BORGIR's appearance at last year's Hell Music Festival, an annual roots-oriented rock event held in a small Norwegian village called Hell. The band used the festival safe to stash the 70,000 Norwegian kroners they made from merchandise sales, but sometime during the day, the money was removed from the safe and deposited into the festival's bank account. The festival went bankrupt in the summer of 2007, and the nearly empty bank accounts were frozen by the government.

According to Stjørdalens Blad, DIMMU BORGIR is contemplating filing a lawsuit against the festival organizers directly in order to get their money back.

"The band never received their cash before Hell Music Festival went bankrupt," says DIMMU BORGIR's lawyer Thomas Lidal Jamne. "We are now trying to find out whether we can hold the management and administration of the festival [personally] responsible."

Former Hell Music Festival general Jan Erik Svendsen did not want to comment on the story for Stjørdalens Blad.

(Thanks: Asbjørn Slettemark of Faro Journalen / Martin Holmes)

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