Some Crazies in the Russian Orthodox Church are Trying to Ban Cannibal Corpse From Touring in Russia
MetalSucks informant Mikhail B. from Russia has alerted as to some alarming, but unfortunately unsurprising, news: activists from the Russian Orthodox Church are trying to ban Cannibal Corpse from the country, ahead of the band’s scheduled eight-date October tour.
Mikhail sent in three links to Russian-language news reports on the matter (here, here and here), and although the English translation via Google Translate is spotty, it does give us a basic idea of what’s going on. The backlash is being organized by Dmitry Tsorionov (who sometimes goes by Dmitry Enteo) — the leader of the Orthodox public movement “God’s Will” — who is first going through official government means to try and accomplish his mission, and if that fails will resort to rallies, prayer meetings and “mass protests in various forms.” Mikhail tells us that Tsorionov “is infamous for spreading obscurant, antiscientific, and aggressive religious views amongst the Russian youngsters and adolescents and supporting the anti-abortion and pedophile-hunting companies (he is reported to participate in many more fanatical bigotry-inspired actions).”
The specific complaints leveled against Cannibal Corpse shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point — given what went on with Behemoth in Russia earlier this year — but here they are anyway:
[Tsorionov] said that believers particularly outraged by open calls for the murder of priests in the lyrics, as well as a detailed description of sexual acts with children and killing them. “It is absolutely outrageous things most difficult to come up with an abomination. Them a place in a mental hospital, people with such thoughts should simply be isolated from society.”
Sadly it seems as if there’s a chance the legal proceedings will be successful:
“The facts and arguments set forth chairman” of the Orthodox Union, “Roman Pluta, will be checked. They will be given the appropriate legal assessment”, – told “Interfax” in the supervisory agency.
“We seek to ban concerts Cannibal Corpse in Russia. Their work is fully covered by the composition of the crime under the articles of the Criminal Code, for fueling religious hatred, promoting exclusivity, superiority or inferiority of citizens on the basis of their religion,” – said the head of the “Orthodox Union”
What we can’t quite discern is whether the case — which is being taken up in the city of Krasnodar — will have implications on the whole tour, or just the show in that one city.
Hopefully the Corpse will be able to continue as planned, giving Russian metalheads the release they need and deserve! And if it doesn’t work out… well, let’s just pray to Satan that Corpsegrinder et al. aren’t given the Behemoth treatment and placed in cells with feces smeared all over the walls.
