Cannibal Corpse Comment on Russian Show Cancellations

As an industry insider just said to us, it is “Totally fucked in Russia right now for notable bands / bands large enough for the Russian Orthodox church / government to notice.” First Behemoth were detained by Russian authorities (and then deported!), allegedly because there was some problem with their visas, but really because their native country, Poland, is backing the Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with the former Soviet Union for no good reason (sorry, Russian apologists — no way a band of Behemoth’s stature goes on tour without the proper paperwork, and no way a government sends a SWAT team after a band for that same reason). More recently, Cannibal Corpse were forced to cancel multiple shows in Russia as a result of pressure from the Russian Orthodox Church (sorry, in one case it was due to “technical issues” with multiple venues… and if you believe that, I’ve got a new Necrophagist album I’d like to sell you.)

The death metal titans have now commented on this shitty situation via a press release:

“A message to our Russian fans:

“As you all are certainly aware by now, our concerts in Ufa, Moscow, and St. Petersburg were cancelled. We were present in these cities and ready to perform each of these shows but were not permitted to. In Ufa the power was turned off shortly before the show (we were told because the venue was late on rent), and in Moscow and St. Petersburg we were told that we did not have the correct visas and that if we attempted to perform the concert would be stopped by police and we would be detained and deported (prior to the tour we had been told that we did have the correct visas and that all of our paperwork was in order).

“Our show in Nizhny Novgorod also had problems. In that city we performed half of our set before being stopped by police. We were told the police needed to search the venue for drugs and that the show had to be terminated.

“These are the reasons for the cancellations as far as we have been told.

“On the brighter side, we had a fantastic time performing in Krasnodar, Samara, Chelyabinsk, and Yekaterinburg. We were able to play our full set in all four of those cities.

“We came to Russia excited and prepared to play all of the scheduled concerts, and we apologize that we were not able to do so. It was beyond our control. We are extremely disappointed. We have played in Russia many times and we love our Russian fans. Hopefully someday the situation for us in Russia will be different and we will be able to return.”

The band also released these chilling photos from the police raid in Nizhny Novgorod (click to enlarge):This is, simply put, terrifying, and reason one billion I’m glad the Rosenberg clan fled Russia during WWII. I mean… holy fuck.

Russian MetalSucks readers (’cause we know we have a few of you): weigh in in the comments section. Is there ANYTHING legit about these cancellations? Or is Russia just turning into a police state???