CANNIBAL CORPSE's ROB BARRETT Comments On Russian Concert Cancelations: 'We Didn't Get Arrested Or Deported'

Kaaos TV conducted an interview with guitarist Rob Barrett of Florida death metal veterans CANNIBAL CORPSE on October 15 at Nosturi in Helsinki, Finland. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about the problems CANNIBAL CORPSE encountered on its recent Russian tour, Rob said: "We tried to do eight shows in Russia, but ended up only doing four and a half due to some problems over there with somebody that was getting our shows shut down. So we actually only were able to do four full shows and then we got stopped half way through a fifth one. But at least we got to do more than half, so that was a success in itself. We didn't get arrested or deported, or… Well, we got canceled several shows, but… Other than that, the shows were really good over there. The shows that we weren't allowed to play, we actually stuck around and did a signing and took pictures with a bunch of people just so then they didn't feel like we were just leaving and not really caring about them."

Asked how he feels that there are still some countries like Russia, where concert cancelations are believed to have been related to complaints by Dmitry Tsorionov, the head of "God's Will," a Russian Orthodox social movement, about CANNIBAL CORPSE's lyrics, which Tsorionov claims violate Russia's anti-blasphemy law, Rob said: "I don't really wanna say my full opinion about it, but it seems at least over there that the wall is back up, you just can't see it."

In July 2013, Russia passed a new anti-blasphemy law introducing fines and possible prison sentences for offending the "feelings of religious believers."

CANNIBAL CORPSE's tour of Russia kicked off on October 2 in Krasnodar and was scheduled to include eight concerts. However, only four shows went ahead as planned, with the band's October 5 gig in Ufa getting axed when the venue abruptly closed "for technical reasons." CANNIBAL CORPSE's October 10 concert in Nizhny Novgorod was shut down by armed masked police officers 30 minutes after it had started. A number of fans were detained and taken for compulsory drug tests.

According to the police, the detained fans were charged either with "disorderly conduct" or with "being drunk in public," offenses that are punishable by fines or up to 15 days in prison.

CANNIBAL CORPSE is far from the only Western rock band to have run into problems in Russia recently. Back in June, shock rocker Marilyn Manson was forced to cancel his show in Moscow due to a bomb threat while another concert in Russia was scrapped over fears his performance would insult Orthodox believers and promote sadomasochism.

One month earlier, Polish extreme metallers BEHEMOTH had their concerts in Khabarovsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar canceled following a string of protests by Christian activists.