IMMORTAL: 'The Day That Should Not Have Been'

Norwegian black metallers IMMORTAL were forced to cancel their appearance at this year's Screamfest, which is being held November 7-8, 2008 on three different stages in Oslo, Norway. The band's official statement on the matter reads as follows:

"We're extremely sorry for the disaster that took place in Oslo last night [Friday, November 7] at Screamfest. The venue staff ruined our show in advance, and we let all of you down.

"The feeling of not being able to perform for dedicated fans having travelled in from all over Norway and the rest of the world, is beyond description.

"First of all, the security in the hall was not very good. At first, they wanted us to perform without crash barriers in front of the stage, which could have been an even worse situation because of the pyrotechnics on stage. After that was taken care of, we had the final confirmation that the fire alarm system was disconnected, and we would not face any problems due to this. Our pyrotechnics effects were approved by the fire department, we had invested a lot of money into this show, and really wanted to give our fans a special evening.

"Literally minutes before the band is ready to walk to the stage, the fire alarm goes off, and the building gets evacuated. Half an hour later, our manager is told to come to a meeting with the venue staff, and he's given the information that we're denied to use any kind of smoke, flames or other pyrotechnical effects.

"We discussed whether we should still play the show or not, but we decided that enough was enough. The venue staff had caused problems for us all day, and concluded by blatantly lying and disregarding written agreements and signed contracts, thus making the conditions to deliver a proper Immortal show totally unacceptable.

"The way it was, we had three factors working against us: a totally incomplete visual experience of Immortal, we would have had to cut almost half of our set, and we would have caused KEEP OF KALESSIN and SODOM to cut their sets short.

"We know a lot of you are disappointed and angry because of our decision, which we did not make lightly. We will try to make this up to you in one way or another.

"We will be back next year with a new album and tours in 2009 and 2010.

"Our manager had the venue sign a document where they acknowledged that they are to blame for this disaster, and are obliged to refund parts of the ticket to all who bought a ticket for the show.

"Details on this will be presented [on the IMMORTAL web site] and on the festival website over the weekend."

Professionally filmed video footage of IMMORTAL's performance at this year's Graspop Metal Meeting — which was held June 27-29, 2008 in Dessel, Belgium — can be viewed below.