Necrophobic Fires Vocalist Tobias Sidegård

Tobias Sidegård can claim innocence and threaten to sue the media all he wants; he’s been sentenced to six months in prison for domestic abuse, specifically of his wife and daughters. That’s bad news for his band, Necrophobic, because a) their new album, Womb of Lilithu, is coming out on October 25 and now the band can’t really do much in the way of touring or press to support it (I mean they could try to do press, but all any interviewer would want to discuss would be Sidegård’s crimes), and b) FAR MORE IMPORTANTLY, while we like to say “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” there is sometimes such a thing as bad publicity, and having your frontman turn out to be an abuser of women is one of those times.

And so, unsurprisingly, the other members of the band — guitarists Fredrik Folkare and Robert Sennebäck, bassist Alex Friberg, and drummer Joakim Sterner — have ousted Sidegård from their ranks. From the band’s Facebook page:

Unless it’s something along the lines of “I did something horrible and I will now spend the rest of my days trying to make up for it,” I honestly don’t give a shit what Sidegård has to say; I’m also a little surprised it took the band this long to dump Sidegård, who was sentenced nearly a month ago. Then again, as far as anyone knows at least, Tim Lambesis is still in As I Lay Dying, so shit happens I guess.

The question now is: will listeners be able to put Sidegård out of their minds long enough to give Womb of Lilithu an earnest listen? Or has the singer’s taint just completely fucked the album’s chances of being taken seriously? Time will tell.

[via Metal Underground]