Earlier today, we wrote that death metal supergroup Bloodbath would be postponing their U.S. tour and dropping off of the line-up at Maryland Deathfest due to visa issues. Now, it looks like Swedish melodic death metallers Dismember will be joining them in bailing on MDF — though for them, it’s due to American vaccine requirements. That said, MDF has announced a pretty solid replacements for them: Autopsy and Demolition Hammer.
Dismember released the following statement:
“Due to the Covid-19 restrictions still active for entering the U.S., we are forced to cancel our appearance at Maryland Deathfest this year. We held our hope that the U.S. would follow other countries example and end the mandatory vaccination demand. With less than a month to go ‘that’ has not happened and therefore we see no other choice than to cancel.”
There you go — you don’t wanna get vaxxed, fine, but you can’t play.
Meanwhile, Maryland Deathfest announced the replacements for Bloodbath and Dismember via the following statement:
“It sickens us beyond belief to have to post this, but both Dismember and Bloodbath are no longer playing MDF.
“We are quoting the statements received from both bands below. As you can see, in both instances, this is entirely out of our control. We understand how disappointing this news will be for many of you and we can certainly relate, as this is the absolute last thing we wanted to have to post in the 11th hour before the fest finally transpires.
“Despite the short notice, AUTOPSY are now playing on Saturday at Edison Lot, and DEMOLITION HAMMER are now playing on Friday at Edison Lot.
“We understand that emotions will probably be running high over this news, but we personally don’t have time to dwell on it, as we, along with all of our staff, are working tirelessly to welcome the 91 bands that are still scheduled to play at MDF in just 2 weeks, so we can’t lose sight of that.
“Quite a few foreign bands that are due to play MDF are already in the US, and we know that all of the other foreign bands meet the requirement to enter the US and aren’t dealing with visa issues. While there’s always a possibility for something unexpected to occur, we feel like this is the worst of the news that we’ll need to drop on you.”
So, look, I was STOKED to see both Dismember and Bloodbath at MDF this year, and I don’t really care for Demolition Hammer…but I fucking loooove Autopsy. I’ll see those dudes any day. So, a bummer, but not a terrible trade-off overall.
Check out MDF’s statement below: