Cannibal Corpse and censorship – a love-affair for the ages. Having faced years of censorship in the US (and more recently in Germany), Cannibal Corpse are now seen as a threat by the Russian authorities too!
In October 2014, four of the eight planned Cannibal Corpse shows in Russia were cancelled. The concert in Nizhny Novgorod (10 October) was shut down by armed police 30 minutes into the band’s set. Russia’s new “anti-blasphemy law” (whereby offenders of the Christian religious sentiment will be prosecuted) is being thrown around as why these shows were cancelled. It is interesting to wonder how this law could be applicable to Cannibal Corpse, a band whose religious references are close to zero. This is probably why, according to the band’s statements, they were presented with all sorts of different reasons for the shows’ cancellations (from venue power problems, to venue license problems, to the band not having the right visas while already in the country).
On 28 November 2014, the court ruled that translation of Cannibal Corpse lyrics be banned from distribution in Russia, after a request by prosecutors in the republic of Bashkortostan. “The lyrics contain scenes of abuse, physical and psychological violence against people and animals, murders and suicide, complete with pictures” a prosecution spokeswoman was quoted as saying. The Oktyabrsky District Court of Ufa agreed that the band’s lyrics available in the public domain could cause damage to minors and upheld the claim.
“There’s a lot of problems in the world, and death metal just isn’t one of them” Alex Webster (Cannibal bassist) had told Zero Tolerance in 2009 for our censorship special in issue #27. With the western world sinking to new levels of violence, exploitation and ignorance, it seems some people are not of the same opinion as Webster.