Damn! Things got escalated quite quickly in Buenos Aires.
After Abbath screwed up the gig yesterday, the tour is now officially canceled.
Here’s the statement from the band:
“It is with a heavy heart that we have to announce the cancellation of the remainder of the ABBATH South American ‘Outstrider’ tour. Due to health issues that need to be treated, we are unable to complete the last shows in Argentina and Brazil. We deeply apologize to all of the fans that wanted to come and see us, to the local promoters, and to Matrix Entertainment who has worked tirelessly in order to make this tour happen. We hope we can make it up to all you someday. We are very sorry.”
According to the report on the local metal site El Culto, the doors to Club Palermo opened two hours later than scheduled, forcing support acts DESCARNADO and MEDIUM to play heavily abbreviated sets. When ABBATH finally took the stage, the group consisted only of its visibility inebriated namesake frontman (real name Olve Eikemo) alongside bassist Mia Wallace and drummer Ukri “Uge” Suvilehto.
Rumors had spread earlier in the day that Abbath had gotten into an argument with guitarist Ole André Farstad, who reportedly decided to stay at the hotel and skip the gig.
ABBATH reportedly tried to open the concert with “Count The Dead” at least twice, only for the frontman to drop his guitar on the ground after 10 seconds and throw himself into the crowd. They then tried to perform a “very poor version” of the song “Tyrants” by Abbath‘s former band IMMORTAL, before Abbath left the stage and was taken to the dressing room, from which he did not re-emerge to finish the set.
The fans’ anger quickly flooded social media, with many of them asking for the return of their money.
Now fans have expressed their concern and lashed out at Abbath. Some of them want Abbath to enter rehab.
Below are the comments from Abbath fans:
“The other three members need to fire Abbath and find a new singer.”
“It’s mental issues, and he is having a downtime again now and can’t tour for a while as he can’t focus.”
“Time to enter rehab, Abbath.”
“They tried to make him go to Rehab and he said no, no, no.”
“I wonder if the other guitarist quit the band? Regardless, Abbath needs to refocus and ask himself why he’s in the music business. He’s a legend but fans deserve much, much better than this.”
“Dudes the Ozzy of Black Metal.”
“Sounds like he needs to go to Rehabbath.”
“So he is a drunk, his guitarist quits, and he claims it is “health issues”. Seems legit.”
Three years have passed since the debut of Abbath Doom Occulta’s newest musical endeavor, Abbath, which received mostly positive reviews. While it wasn’t his strongest offering in his career (it’s kind of hard to top some of Immortal’s offerings), Abbath was able to ride momentum off of the project, and previous fame, to immediately begin touring all over the world. I caught the live act a couple of years ago and I was immediately impressed by his and the band’s stage presence. Abbath has always had his goofy personality in most, if not all, situations but has a unique legendary atmosphere surrounding him as well.