I'm surprised this is the first one we're hearing about. After speaking to multiple booking agents and managers in recent weeks, it seems the consensus is that bands will be skipping the Czech Republic during future touring in Europe. This is not only in support of Randy Blythe, who is still detained in a Czech prison, but for their own safety. Ultimately, they don't want what happened to Randy to happen to them.
Today, hardcore mainstays Terror sent out a press release saying they are cancelling their Czech date of their upcoming European tour. Here is their official statement:
"TERROR is going to cancel their show in the Czech Republic this month. We feel obligated to stand up for Randy Blythe. This situation seems to be taken too lightly. Randy comes from punk and hardcore roots, just like TERROR. He still supports underground music and has always supported TERROR– even singing on stage alongside us when we play Richmond. This hits really close to home for us having members of the band and our crew from the hometown of LAMB OF GOD."
"We love our Czech fans very much and have amazing shows there, but we need to 'stick tight' to our friend Randy, which is why we have chosen to cancel the show. As a band that could easily be in this same position at any given show, we don't think we can play there and act like this is OK – it isn't."
"This is bigger than a hashtag or a clever t-shirt– we as a community need to take action and speak up. Free Randy Blythe."
The big losers here are the Czech metal fans, who will certainly be missing out on a lot of shows in the future. Beyond just skipping Czech dates, except much stricter rules about moshing, stage diving, and crowd surfing in the future as well. Once these lawsuits get involved, it sucks all the fun out of metal, because ultimately, what makes these shows fun, is also considered unsafe by outsides and could be privy to lawsuits, which is something not many bands want to deal with.
