.: Posted by Christofer Johnsson :: May 28, 2007 :.

As it has been told to me that some of the stuff I have written has been missunderstood in Russia, I hereby make a short clearification.

There is absolutely no need for russian fans to argue with each other and take sides Therion vs Blind Guardian. We have different attitudes in our bands and I've clearly lost my respect for them, but there's no "war" going on and for what I am concerend there's no value in "crying over spilled milk" as we say in Sweden. What happened has happened and I've told the story as I experienced it. If this mean others also loose repect for Blind Guardian too is nothing I care about, repect is something you earn and in my eyes that don't. But their music is not bad (though I see them as a good power metal band with a sound of their own and not the kind of higher for of art music they gave me the impression they think they play) and I see no reason why fans should be arguing, we can't change now what already happened then anyway. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but if you are angry at Blind Guardian, rather send them a mail about about it than arguing with other fans. Or simply just forget about the whole thing and look forward to the future instead.

be assured we love the russian fans and are very sorry that we couldn't give you the Therion concert we planned and that you all deserved. That is why I was even prepared to cancel and pay for many costs from my own pocket, because it was such an unforgettable experience the last two times and we wanted to aim even higher this time.
In 2009 we will make a new record and 2010 we will be making a new World Tour and then we'll come back to Russia again and show you not only what it SHOULD have been like this time, we will do even BETTER! That is a promise.

I also like to mention that the russian promoter has mailed me and apologuised for the event. It's an honest apology and it seems this sort of event with many bands is simply over their heads and too complicated for them to organize. As I wrote in the last post, they did a good job the two times before, so therefore we expected it to be at least on the same level this time, and our dissapointment was therefore extra big when things turned out to be such a total disaster. Not everything was their fault (like the previous people who rented the hall and didn't remove the cars from the day before), but nevertheless they are the promoter and they are the ones responsible for enabling a hall for the concert. They meant well, but this event was simply totally over their heads to organize and hopefully they stick to events they can handle better in the future (for the sake of them selves, the bands and the fans).

.: Posted by Christofer Johnsson :: May 28, 2007 :.