BLACKENEDFEST TOUR FALLS APART
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 10:47am by Vince Neilstein
Anyone following this year’s MetalSucks co-sponsored, Mayhem-headlined Blackenedfest tour should already know that this tour has been plagued from the start. First was the Marduk no-show (reportedly due to visa problems) followed by the Boise cancelation, then a message posted on Cephalic Carnage’s MySpace page this Monday announcing the band had decided to drop off the tour in Denver without any further explanation. The latest wrinkle is an exclusive, in-depth, first-hand report from Metal Injection roving reporter Justina Villanueva, who had been out on the road covering the entire tour for Metal Injection.
Reports Justina in her tour diary at Metal Injection:
I had my only Almost Famous moment of this tour in Denver, Colorado. We were not exactly in a descending plane but it definitely felt like we were. I watched Blackened Fest collapse within a matter of several hours. It wasn’t a short run of a tour but it’s demise was very short notice to the people involved.
Just after Withered left the bus to start their set, Cartel (tour manager) came onto the Cephalic/Withered shared mobile home to announce, “Guys, tonight might be the last night of the tour.” He started inquiring about who were the unnecessary people on the tour so he could free up bunk space. This included Sid, Leonard’s (Cephalic vocalist) son, and Chuck, Nick’s (Cephalic’s bassist) brother. Because we were in Denver, Cephalic’s home, the question at hand was easy to seal away: two free bunks. But, two free bunks doesn’t solve the extra 6 people still on Marduk’s money-swallowing bus. At that point in the night I knew one bus would be sent home and maybe some crew (most likely me too). But, I didn’t expect the actual outcome: a Mayhem only tour.
Read the entire fascinating inside-look at the collapse of the Blackenedfest tour here. The end result: Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation and Withered have dropped off, and Mayhem will now complete the rest of the dates alone.
While Metal Injection’s coverage is decidedly anti-Mayhem — as Villanueva was on the other side of the fence — we welcome and encourage someone from the Mayhem camp to reach out to us at news [at] metalsucks.net to tell their side of the story. Whatever the case, it sucks that this awesome lineup has fallen apart.
-VN
MOTHER FUCKER. I was planning on going to the show in Cleveland on Friday. I could fucking shoot someone right now.
so glad I heard about this when I did, I was about 2 hours away from making a 2 1/2 hour drive to the venue when I saw Cephalic Carnage’s post about the tour
Yawn!!
The whole situation sucks, that’s for sure. Still, maybe I’m reading this wrong, but I don’t think it was unethical for Mayhem to demand what they were owed as the headliners, if that’s what they were (I’m not a fan of black metal). Headliners sell a tour. If Mayhem really were the “headliners” then they deserve their agreed-upon share, even if that might screw the rest of the bands in a worst case scenario.
Support acts help bring in more people, but cost/benefit analysis would conclude that the more bands you bring on these dates the less profitable the tour is overall. Someone should have foreseen that an issue with any one of the support acts would have derailed things in this manner.
The fact that Mayhem are going to continue to play the remaining shows suggests that they have the business end of things down. And yes, this is a business. International tours are costly.
The Visa issue is unfortunate, but it does happen. It seems like the tour manager and some of the acts tried to find contingency plans, but this was probably the best outcome given the scenario.
I went to the St. Paul show last night, and Necrobutcher said after the show that they aren’t making any money at these remaining shows, and are probably going to lose money, which may cause a delay in renting a studio this fall for a new album. Making a financial sacrifice such as that for only six remaining shows proves that this band is in it for the music.
Great fucking show, I hope it’s not another 9-year wait before they come back to the U.S. again.
These mother fuckers never get shit together. It’s a wonder there’s even a genre of music called Black Metal. Support other acts! Stop being so fucking selfish!
Dude… two of the 5 bands on the lineup weren’t even black metal.
Genre semantics. Point is, selfishness won here. And the fans lose.
No, it sounds like government bureaucrats “won” here. Marduk gets their visa, the tour doesn’t run out of money and it doesn’t collapse in Colorado. I’d love to hear Mayhem’s side of things – that’s the one thing Justina’s tour diary didn’t cover, despite it being an “in-depth” report – but I can’t fault them for asking for the money they were contracted to receive.
sounds like a regular fucking shambles.
Good thing I made the SF show :)
That really does suck. I didn’t attend when it came to my town, but this was definitely a solid tour.
I was at the Denver show on Sunday night and I went for the combination of bands. I like the opening bands and had seen them before, but it was more of a curiosity to see the infamous Mayhem. The opening bands did a great job, unfortunately Mayhem where very boring and their sound was bad. I did not have a chance to check out the merch area, but from what I heard Mayhem did not have any merch. Can anyone who was out the show confirm this? Most bands make their money on merch, so that can defiantly contribute to money issues.
GIGO
As long as Mayhem is still playing tomorrow night in Chicago, I don’t give a fuck. Fuck the tech death Vegans, fuck Cephalic Carnage and fuck Withered. Mayhem (with fucking ATTILA) is the draw here. Thats all that matters. The other bands were an ill fit of the tour anyways. Aparently Nachtmystium is playing the Chicago show tomorrow night. YAWN. Fuck them. They SUCK.
cant see why people are blaming Mayhem…they are just getting what is theirs, and they have fulfilled their part of the deal, which is playing the fucking shows. This has to do with people up above, booking, label blah blah blah. This is like cussing out LBJ because Stern and the refs call the game his way. He’s not doing anything wrong, it’s the people above that are fucking shit up.
And this entire situation can totally be blamed on Mortuus’ ADHD. Next time get your fucking paperwork in before you screw everyone else or at least give them a heads up. And now I’m seeing this tomorrow with only LotM and Mayhem.
By tomorrow you mean the Chicago show? I know Nachtmystium is now playing as well. Lair of the Minotaur is playing too? Didn’t know that. They are okay, better than Cattle Decapitation at least.
So why are they blaming Mayhem instead of Marduk? That seems to be where all the shit started.
That’s what I was thinking. Sounds like Mayhem is being shit on because they were not willing to “share the wealth” so to speak when they just want what they were told they would get.
It may not be the most selfless thing to ask for, but it doesn’t mean they be required to do so just to make the tour happen. I think that lack of planning by management is probably too blame here.
No Cattle Decap No care ever.
Withered > all of these bands
I went to the Seattle show to see Mayhem and Marduk and didn’t find out Marduk were off the bill until after I paid the pretty hefty door fee to get in since that had not been advertised anywhere, including at the club. By the time Mayhem played I was losing interest in the whole thing since the opening bands were so boring. Attila pretty much made it so that the whole evening wasn’t a complete waste so anyone that gets to see Mayhem with a better band like Nachtmystium is actually winning as opposed to paying for Blackenedfest
Mayhem is the only one of those bands i would ever wanna see
I attended the tour date in San Francisco. Honestly, I arrived late purposely to just see Mayhem. They did an amazing set, well over an hour, and I left satisfied. Of course I was also one of those people who have had their tickets since 2007 when Hellhammer broke his arm, so I have been waiting quite a longtime to see Mayhem.
So the good bands are off the ticket while the (musically) talentless Mayhem remain? What a joke. Listen to an album objectively or fuck, just read an interview and you’ll see that these fucking crybabies put any shit on an album and sell it based on past notoriety. Pathetic.
Cephalic Carnage sucks. They have musical ability, but they have not written a SONG in 10 years of existance. Cattle Decapitation is soulless, boring tech death that has absolutely no feeling behind it, just mindless brutality. WIthered is but a flash in the pan, and very,very generic.
Mayhem, on the other hand has a mostly solid discography, with a metal classic “De Mysteries Dom Sathanas” under their belt , and other more recent material that is pushing metal forward and deconstructing it at the same time (Grand Decleration of War, and Ordo ad Chao respectively).
Attila Csihar is a LEGENDARY, unique vocallist, and is worth the ticket price alone.
I gaurantee you that in 10 years, they will be the ONLY band on this tour still remembered.
And I’m sure that that’s why Attila Csihar and Jan Axel von Blomberg are two of the most requested session musicians in the metal genre. Mayhem have never releases the same album twice and can take years before producing a new release. Whenever they put out an album, the metal world pays attention. And let’s not forget that the entire second wave of black metal was inspired by these guys.
So Nachtmystium and LotM were no shows. That fucking sucked. At least Mayhem was good.
Blake and John from Nachtmystium had the flu, and hadn’t practiced much recently anyways and are trying to rest up for the Pentagram tour in a couple weeks…that’s why they didn’t play. LotM were also very sick. All the opening bands sucked anyways, and I didn’t want to watch anyone but Mayhem, who put on an amazing show…… “Buried by Time and Dust” was amazing, as well as “De Mysteries…”. Couldn’t have asked for a better performace. Who ever the douche bag that threw the full beer at Attila should have been strung up and beaten on stage. Im glad they didn’t walk off the stage after that….no wonder the rest of the world thinks (for good reason) that Americans are ignorant pompous assholes.
This is a serious shitstormmcclusterfuck of epic proportions. Here in Toronto we got a $12.50 partial refund for Marduk dropping off. That’s quite disappointing though, as i was looking forward to seeing them with Mortuus/Arioch on vocals, but i’m a big enough Mayhem fan to still go. I don’t care about the other bands though.
$12.50 partial refund?? That would NEVER happen in the U.S. They never, ever refund anything if a band doesn’t show. In fact, we have something called “Ticket Insurance” where you can PAY an extra $8 in case they show is cancelled, then you get your refund!! Only in America do you have to pay extra in order to get your money back on a faulty sale !!!!
I was looking forward to seeing Marduk with Arioch as well, he is a SICK vocallist. Mayhem was amazing though, and the main reason I wanted to go. Attila is simply a masterful vocallist, and was worth twice the price of admission alone!
How was the Toronto gig? I live in Chicago and it was great!
We got $5 back in St Paul, or a free ticket to the Absu show the following week. Sounds like a winner to me.