EVERGREY Forced To Cancel METALFEST Appearance

Swedish metallers EVERGREY have been forced to cancel their appearance at the first edition of a new U.K. festival called Metalfest, which is being held September 25-27, 2009 at JB's in Dudley.

Commented the band: "Since the concert promoter failed to fulfill his agreements, including paying us the money, this makes it impossible for us to play the Metalfest.

"We are on tour in Croatia at the moment and we would also have additional costs to get ourselves to England, and we just received a SMS message from the promoter where it said he won't be able to pay us. This means that we as a band would lose even more money since we will have overweight for luggage and having to rent vans for airports.

"The promoter apologized to us in a new SMS — BUT nothing and no one is more sad than us for having to betray our U.K. fans...

"IF there are any fans that want to come to any of our other shows, we will help you out with tickets to the show and maybe even arrange a meet-and-greet, all to ease your losses maybe a bit. Those of you who can do that can e-mail us at [email protected] for more details.

"Once again, EVERGREY are sending their apologies but it's out of our hands."

"Torn", the latest album from EVERGREY, entered the official chart in the band's home country at position No. 4. The CD was released in North America on September 23, 2008. The limited edition comes in a high-class digipack with one bonus track ("Caught In A Lie").

"Torn" was previously described by frontman Tom S. Englund as a "modern mix of 'In Search Of Truth' and 'Recreation Day'." "The tracks are all guitar-oriented and very atmospheric," he said. "They have exactly the sound that our fans expect from us." According to Englund, the slightly more experimental direction of EVERGREY's previous release, "Monday Morning Apocalypse", has given way again to old strengths and virtues. "Two years ago we needed an album with a slightly different approach and an expensive producer, just to find out how that sort of thing works," he explained. "It was the right album at the time, but now we have returned to our typical trademarks." This is one of the reasons why the tracks on "Torn" were self-produced by Englund together with drummer Jonas Ekdahl. In addition, the band has a new bassist, Fredrik Larsson having been replaced by former STRATOVARIUS musician Jari Kainulainen.