PRIMORDIAL Pulls Out Of Portugal's CAOS EMERGENTE Festival

Irish dark metal masters PRIMORDIAL have cancelled their appearance at this year's Caos Emergente festival, set to take place September 12-14 in Recarei, Porto, Portugal.

Commented vocalist Alan "Nemtheanga" Averill: "It is sad indeed to be writing the same blog twice in as many weeks but there is no escaping the unavoidable.

"Simon (O'Laoghaire; drums) is still ill and recieving treatment. There is no way he can travel and unfortunately we have had to cancel the show this weekend. We have no other choice and apologise to the patient organisers at Caos Emergente and also to our faithful Portugese fans who have been there from the very beginning.

"This year has been full of some of the absolute highs and absolute lows it is possible to experience in a band and the lifestyle of being on tour/festivals can take its toll.

"Bands are not machines. It's not an exact science. We are all subject to our human weaknesses and breakdowns. Every single member of the band over the years has at some point had to face the trials and tribulations we all face in our lives. We are no different.

"In the last few years we have seen the rise and rise of the festival and the festival tour. Every city, every town has one. Everyone all of a sudden fancies themselves as promoters or booking agents, vying to be the next Wacken. Too many promoters fighting for the same piece of pie all over Europe. We get booking offers right now for 2010? How can we be expected to say yes and be asked to sign a contract for that? We have never made a living from the band as I have stated often enough and it was never our intention. If one of us starts a new job a week before some festival we book now in 2009 how can he perform both? Rent must be paid and kids fed and we sure as hell can't do both from playing in PRIMORDIAL. Some things are more important then playing a show and if you are going to make your living off dealing with bands then you must expect that sometimes things do not work out as you planned.

Let me put it like this... If you run a football team, sometimes you buy a new player. He might get injured in the first game and can't play the rest of the season. That's life. What do you do? Sue the player? Perhaps he could have pulled out of the tackle? You can tell Roy Keane that...

"Damn it, I've been trying to get a football analogy into a blog since we started this!

"So before you read something false on the Internet or before all the chatroom warriors take to their keyboads in anger at PRIMORDIAL or any other band over selling out or selling out their fans cancelling a show, realise that most of us don't make a living from playing music. We never did, and there are a a hundred complicated variables that have to happen before I set foot on a festival ground before playing. Life is complex and to quote the man, shit happens. Death and taxes. That's all you can bet on, my friends..."

PRIMORDIAL's latest album, "To the Nameless Dead", was released in November 2007 on Metal Blade Records.

Fan-filmed video footage of PRIMORDIAL performing the song "As Rome Burns" at this year's Tuska festival on June 28, 2008 in Helsinki, Finland can be viewed below (clip uploaded by YouTube user "OneManHorde").