September 27, 2003

As most of you have probably found out in the meantime already, the SHINING / BLOODLINE / URGEHAL tour unfortunately had to be cancelled. To let you know more about the reasons, we figured it would be a good idea to publish SHINING’s complete press statement, which should clear up all possible rumors and false statements: "At the 10th of September Kvarforth, Phil A. Cirone, John and Acerbus went to Oslo, Norway in order to rehearse for the upcoming six gigs (when we initially were promised ten), that were to take place during the "Razors Across Europe" tour. The curse proved itself to be more dominant than ever when we began our trip to Oslo by train from Sweden and we almost suddenly crashed with a car, unluckily both passengers survived but we had to wait for a buss and arrived five hours later than expected. Even though it really started go wrong the night before when I lost my apartment due to some violence inflicted in the building were I live caused by one of the precious Shining members… However, rehearsals began and we all were a bit surprised by the fact that one of our guitarists didn’t have the capacity he prior to this labelled himself to have, but we all thought that he could be trained enough before we were to start touring. At the 12th we didn’t have any money left because Norwegian living isn’t exactly the cheapest to put it nicely. However, we trusted all to work out by the money our label, Avantgarde Music were to send us and arrive via Western Union that same day. However it didn’t, and we were struck with yet another big problem. That particular weekend was probably the worst period of our lives ever, as we simply started fighting eachother in rage and fury, problem after problem occurred and at monday we finally did receive the money from Avantgarde. However, Norway is as said a very expensive country and there was no way to pay for a place to sleep, food and the rest at the same time paying the tickets to go to Germany, with the amount of money we under prior agreement did receive from Avantgarde, but we had some hope of solving this situation by asking for more money until the latter problems did occur… Rehearsing and rehearsing until Wednesday when we found out that not just Phil A. Cirone couldn’t come with us because of a smaller but uncomfortable injury our drum-technician all of a sudden got the bad news that he wasn’t able to join, thus, we were without bassist and drummer… We did however at this time give Avantgarde a call telling about the situation, whereas we all understood that there wasn’t any other option but to cancel the already poor tour we were to attend… Filip of Agonia Promotion / Records tried to solve this situation by replacing other members in Shining but let’s face reality, no one can learn nine tracks in one and a half days and secondly, we would never allow any outsiders to reside in our realms. In conclusion, we didn’t have any bass player, no drummer and no money. We had to go home, without food, without a place to sleep and most importantly without a home (at least in Kvarforths case), the tour was cancelled but we tried to get Bloodline on this tour anyhow, which they had been rehearsing for two weeks prior to this while Agonia said last minute here as well that this wouldn’t work out, then the other day did a few gigs alone with Urgehal instead… Selbstmord Services did its best to get both Shining and Bloodline on this tour but we were fucked and everyone involved with this poor, badly organized project is to blame. Yes, us too some but the things that happened in Norway were completely out of our control. Selbstmord Services have lost thousands of Euros, Avantgarde have lost thousands of Euros and Agonia have lost thousand of Euros, but there is nothing that could be done, even though Agonia tried by recording our conversations over phone in order to fully blame Avantgarde. Look, Avantgarde have something to do with this, but Agonia is just as responsible and now, we have a dead-end… there is absolutely nothing that possibly could have been done… nothing… Finally there is one more thing that has to be explained. Perverted Taste were supposed to provide us with merchandise for the tour, and we were to provide them material for releasing the second Shining album on vinyl, some Craft stuff etc. Apparently nothing has been arrived by them and they blame us for this, or mostly Kvarforth. Ok, but this is yet as thing out of our control as Kvarforth has had the blindness to trust others who say they are to do things for him, being abit too naive, this was never a iloyal move of Kvarforth, not at all, just a another proof for Kvarforth that homo sapiens cannot be trusted. Shining are and have forever been a cursed band, in consideration of Perverted Taste – Livets Ändhållplats – in particular… To sum it up, as many seem to misinterpret our words, this is not to opposse neither Avantgarde or Agonia. We do admit that Shining is very much responsible for what happened in Oslo…"

Denmarks EXMORTEM have a couple of new releases coming up shortly. In detailed that is the "Pest Campaign" CD EP, which will feature 6 – 7 tracks (for the price of a MCD). This release will come in very exclusive packaging on Pestifer Records. Osmose Productions will put out a 10" version of "Pest Campaign", with three professionally recorded live tracks (recorded in Valencia-Spain during the band’s European tour in April 2003) and a re-recorded version of ‘Intoxicated By Death’ from the "Labyrinths Of Horror" album (1995). And last but not least there’s gonna be the "Killstorms" 7" on Ancient Darkness Productions. Tracks to appear on that are: ‘Killstorms’ (an unreleased track from 1998 that has been re-arranged with new lyrics etc.) and ‘Critical Madness’ (Autopsy cover). No exact releases dates have been confirmed for any of these releases yet. EXMORTEM are furthermore working on their first video and new material for their next full length album, which might be recorded sometime around Feb. / March 2004. Apart from all this Sigtyr has started up the Pestifier label (and recently released his first two releases) and mail-order, plus the Superion Distribution (carrying stuff for Osmose, Code666, Unique Leader and others). For further info check out: www.exmortem.com, www.osmoseproductions.com, www.superion.dk or www.pestifer.com.