Marduk comment on Blackenedfest tour problems

Swedish black metallers Marduk commented on Sunday regarding their abscence from the current North American Blackenedfest Tour featuring Mayhem, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation and Withered;

The situation with MARDUK not having performed during the first half of Blackenedfest is due to one member of the band not having received his visa yet.

It is not a ‘denied’ visa. The band filed for a P-1 non-immigrant working visa, which is required for a band to play in the states. The visa was APPROVED by the United States Government’s Homeland Security Office.

Furthermore, as required, the band members each individually went to their visa appointments at the U.S. embassy in Stockholm for the standard interview, at which point the persons handling the band’s applications informed the band that there was no further action needed and that they should expect their passports in the mail with the P-1 visa attached.

Everyone in the band received theirs except Mortuus…

”There was no missing document, as earlier stated by Earsplit, but a legal document in Swedish that the US Embassy one day (!) prior to departure informed us that they needed to have ”professionally translated” into English in order to finalize the visa – even though we specifically asked them months earlier if it was ok that some documents were in Swedish; their response being: ”Yes, there is no problem, we have people here that speak Swedish”. Note that a translation from a certified agency (which is a mandatory) takes up to a week – and the Embassy is well aware of this. So, why they waited until the very last day to give us this information, or why the other member’s documents needed no translation, one can only imagine”
/Mort.

We are currently awaiting each day for the passport to be returned to Mortuus with the visa stamp. The embassy is aware of the urgency of this matter and we expect the band to join the tour in progress any day now.

MARDUK are prepared to make up the shows they missed immediately after Blackenedfest ends. These dates will be announced shortly.
/Marduk

Sounds like a lot of foreign bands have been royally fucked over for North American tours by various branches of the US government.  Still no word on whether Marduk have touched down on American soil yet though.  For those of you interested in catching the remainder of the Blackenedfest Tour (which may or may not contain Marduk) here are the remaining dates;

Jun. 05 – Seattle, WA – Studio Seven
Jun. 06 – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory Concert House
Jun. 07 – Denver, CO – Gothic Theater
Jun. 09 – St Paul, MN – Station 4
Jun. 11 – Chicago, IL – House Of Blues
Jun. 12 – Cleveland, OH – Peabody’s
Jun. 13 – Detroit, MI – The Majestic Theater
Jun. 14 – Toronto, ON – The Opera House
Jun. 15 – Montreal, QC – Les Foufounes Electriques

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