MARDUK, ENSLAVED, KEEP OF KALESSIN European Tour Cancelled

Norway's ENSLAVED has announced that the "Excess of Evil" European tour — which was to launch this month with a lineup featuring MARDUK, ENSLAVED, KEEP OF KALESSIN, GOATWHORE, MELECHESH and PANTHEON I — has been cancelled. The band, who has not yet been informed as to the reasons for the cancellation from the booking agency, has issued this statement on the matter:

"We have been waiting for a reason for this cancellation from the booking agency — Metalysee [Belgium] — with whom we agreed to collaborate on a one-off venture, but we have not received one yet and with the first day of the intended tour looming over us, we believed the only alternative we had was to issue some kind of statement ourselves. All we know is that the tour is cancelled and we are disappointed because we looked forward to performing top-notch shows, being part of a high-class package and meeting the fans, the friends, the scene. Our usual booking agent, Goldstar, has informed us that they are working on rescheduling several of the shows this autumn.

"We want to thank everybody that was planning to come down to these shows in France, the U.K., Switzerland, Czech Republic, Italy, Germany and Austria — we will be back in the autumn!"

ENSLAVED was honored with the Spellemann award (the Norwegian equivalent to the Grammy Award) in the "Metal" category for the band's "Ruun" album, which came out in May 2006 via Tabu Recordings (Candlelight in the U.S.). The largest and oldest Norwegian music awards show was held on January 27, 2007 at the Thalia Theater, Chateau Neuf in Oslo, Norway and was broadcast live on the Norwegian channel TV2.