Borknagar cancelled their show at Ragnarök Festival 2012???

[Elvina]

Dear friends of Ragnarök Festival,
unfortunately we have to inform you, that BORKNAGAR cancelled their show on short notice due to temporal reasons. We much regret that decision. As a spontaneous substitute, VARG will overtake the festival slot.

Any explanation on any of the sites other than FB and Twitter would be greatly appreciated.

I just got my tickets 2 days ago. Borknagar was the main reason why i wanted to go this year. I'm feeling, let's put it nicely, let down.

 

[KRaEzTaIuRmED]

I was just about to buy my ticket! Thankfully I didn't, would have been seriously pissed off.

 

[Azzor1911]

Sorry to hear about this. I wonder what happened.
The new album is pretty cool btw

 

[Defiance]

From the Ragnarok FB:

Liebe Freunde des Ragnarök Festivals,

leider müssen wir Euch mitteilen, dass BORKNAGAR ihren Auftritt am Ragnarök wegen zeitlicher Gründe kurzfristig abgesagt haben. Wir bedauern diese Entscheidung sehr. Als spontaner Ersatz wird VARG den Festival-Slot einnehmen.

--

Zunächst möchten wir auf die Absage von BORKNAGAR eingehen. Wie es zu der Aussage der Band kommen konnte, ist für uns auch nicht nachvollziehbar, und wir bedauern es ebenso, dass der Auftritt durch eine Person der Band abgesagt werden musste.

---
Wir können euch wirklich verstehen und können nicht oft genug sagen, wie sehr wir die Absage von Borknagar bedauern…


/end/

Very strange, I wonder what happened; I'd certainly be pissed off.

Edit 01:
Good to see you around here, Elvina.

 

[Helge-Uwe]

Borknagar cancelled their appearance at Ragnarök because one member obviously couldn't keep the schedule

very strange and not professional at all, many fans got pissed right now. but that's understandable.
I wonder what the offical statement from Borknagar exactly sounds like...
well, at least it makes the Inferno gig more exclusive.. they should honour this event with filming a DVD there in my opinion. but, as usual, this likely won't happen

 

[AnTz0r]

maybe they'll release a statement like the one arcturus did when they cancelled on progpower

 

[Agah]

I feel like Borknagar is going to get a reputation of being a band that doesn't show up to their gigs. That combined with their (Jens') anti piracy stuff and the firing of Tiwaz are creating a really ugly image of the band.

 

[Azzor1911]

maybe they'll release a statement like the one arcturus did when they cancelled on progpower

I wonder what the offical statement from Borknagar exactly sounds like...

Very strange, I wonder what happened; I'd certainly be pissed off.

Any explanation on any of the sites other than FB and Twitter would be greatly appreciated.

It's been a week already? And still no official statement from the band, either on social media, or elsewhere? They just keep posting grades and review links for their new album on Facebook but don't have anything to say to the fans who were looking forward to seeing them at Ragnarok? Or if they did I'd love to see the post, I find Facebook very confusing

 

[KRaEzTaIuRmED]

I'm going assume everyone is extremely busy, since artisan hasn't been updated properly in a long either. Still pretty poor response considering it was obvious so many people from this forum were travelling across countries just to see the band.

 

[karpsmom]

I feel like Borknagar is going to get a reputation of being a band that doesn't show up to their gigs. That combined with their (Jens') anti piracy stuff and the firing of Tiwaz are creating a really ugly image of the band.

I agree about the reputation of not following through with shows, but the anti-piracy stuff is not a bad image, it's artists protecting their rights. Did they fire Tyr? I was under the impression that he left the band both times.

 

[KRaEzTaIuRmED]

I agree about the reputation of not following through with shows, but the anti-piracy stuff is not a bad image, it's artists protecting their rights. Did they fire Tyr? I was under the impression that he left the band both times.

Probably shouldn't talk about it here, but he didn't leave.

 

[Helge-Uwe]

bandmembers come and go.. especially with Borknagar. and it's Oystein's band of course. I'm quite sure that's quite none of our business what's going on behind the curtain here.

 

[Naglfar]

bandmembers come and go.. especially with Borknagar. and it's Oystein's band of course. I'm quite sure that's quite none of our business what's going on behind the curtain here.

I don't think they owe me an explanation but not because it's none of our business. If they want to be able to be a commercially viable band, at least to the extent that they can record/produce music and have full commercial releases... well... we pay for that, don't we?

Again, not saying we're entitled to an explanation. But it would help, since they are not recording music in their respective garages. Although if it came to that, I'm sure Oystein would do it.

 

[karpsmom]

Even if Tyr was fired, I trust Øystein's decisions. He's had Borknagar for 17 years and the band has had 15 or so members, changes are inevitable.

 

[Erik Tiwaz]

I wasn't fired. But the climate in the Borknagar camp made it impossible to stay.
I really, REALLY, wanted the band to make it commercially, but I guess my problem is that I wanted it so much more than some of the other guys.
So there were some pretty hefty discussions, especially around the topic of touring. Whereas I was ready to basically drop everything in order to tour extensively, for others in the band this was only a hobby (family and work issues mainly), and it would be impossible for them to do it at the level that I wanted. But I guess the main thing for me in this, was rehearsing, or rather, the lack thereof. The logistics in the band were never easy, everyone's living too far apart for any regularity concerning rehearsals. My stance was that with the lack of rehearsals (maybe 4-5 a year on average), the integrity of the band and the individual musicians was being compromised, and I felt that we didn't present the band musically on a professional level live.
So, I said I wouldn't do any shows until we had a proper regime of rehearsals, and so communications kinda broke down. I learned a few weeks later (on a forum, maybe Blabbermouth, I dunno) that Borknagar had scheduled a tour of South-America with Simen handling the bass. While I do understand that Borknagar is Øysteins baby, and he is free to do with it as he pleases, the way this was handled left me no other choice than to leave.

 

[Allfader]

I wasn't fired. But the climate in the Borknagar camp made it impossible to stay.
I really, REALLY, wanted the band to make it commercially, but I guess my problem is that I wanted it so much more than some of the other guys.
So there were some pretty hefty discussions, especially around the topic of touring. Whereas I was ready to basically drop everything in order to tour extensively, for others in the band this was only a hobby (family and work issues mainly), and it would be impossible for them to do it at the level that I wanted. But I guess the main thing for me in this, was rehearsing, or rather, the lack thereof. The logistics in the band were never easy, everyone's living too far apart for any regularity concerning rehearsals. My stance was that with the lack of rehearsals (maybe 4-5 a year on average), the integrity of the band and the individual musicians was being compromised, and I felt that we didn't present the band musically on a professional level live.
So, I said I wouldn't do any shows until we had a proper regime of rehearsals, and so communications kinda broke down. I learned a few weeks later (on a forum, maybe Blabbermouth, I dunno) that Borknagar had scheduled a tour of South-America with Simen handling the bass. While I do understand that Borknagar is Øysteins baby, and he is free to do with it as he pleases, the way this was handled left me no other choice than to leave.

First of all, Hi Erik! I hope you're doing fine wherever you are doing right now.

I honestly think you're right in the rehearsal thing. I've always thought that Borknagar is a band full of talent but hardly plays live, not just the band as a whole, but each member in their own bands (For the actual band I guess Vortex is the only one who has been constantly touring along these years).

While I love Borknagar albums and sideprojects, I've always felt that the lack of proper rehearsing and touring is the problem when they actually perform live, where there are some mistakes and stuff like that. It's not like I expect a completely flawless performance but I know what you mean: I never saw or heard a noticeable mistake in Emperor, or Enslaved gigs, and I guess it's just the experience of playing live and rehearsing. I heard the whole Wacken 09 gig and there were problems in audio and - probably - lack of proper rehearsing.

About your leaving, it's sad, since you're an excellent bassist and I think you made the best basswork for the band in Empiricism, Universal and Origin (this last one seems to be the less thoughtful, probably for the lack of time to compose anything), but it just happened and it's none of our business (as fans). If things happened as you said, you were forced to leave anyway.

I hope you'll get the chance to shine joining/creating a band where you can display all your talent and capacity. Good luck!

 

[Naglfar]

I wasn't fired. But the climate in the Borknagar camp made it impossible to stay.
I really, REALLY, wanted the band to make it commercially, but I guess my problem is that I wanted it so much more than some of the other guys.
So there were some pretty hefty discussions, especially around the topic of touring. Whereas I was ready to basically drop everything in order to tour extensively, for others in the band this was only a hobby (family and work issues mainly), and it would be impossible for them to do it at the level that I wanted. But I guess the main thing for me in this, was rehearsing, or rather, the lack thereof. The logistics in the band were never easy, everyone's living too far apart for any regularity concerning rehearsals. My stance was that with the lack of rehearsals (maybe 4-5 a year on average), the integrity of the band and the individual musicians was being compromised, and I felt that we didn't present the band musically on a professional level live.
So, I said I wouldn't do any shows until we had a proper regime of rehearsals, and so communications kinda broke down. I learned a few weeks later (on a forum, maybe Blabbermouth, I dunno) that Borknagar had scheduled a tour of South-America with Simen handling the bass. While I do understand that Borknagar is Øysteins baby, and he is free to do with it as he pleases, the way this was handled left me no other choice than to leave.

Thanks for giving your side of the story, my good man. I'm sorry you had to find it out that way... we're all Borknagar die-hards here, but you're still a legend to many of us!

The fans know Borknagar is not a band that tours often, and that does frustrate us. This isn't judging the rest of them for having family and other career commitments, but from our perspective we do agree with you, and David Kinkade, that the band has a ton of potential commercially that they're just not tapping into. I still love the band in spite of this, as do many others. But we wish the rest of the members had been more receptive to the arguments of those who have left, which are consonant with the feelings of the people who consider themselves the band's partisans!

That being said... well, Kinkade is now with Soulfly. What about you? In the meantime many of us get our fix from Vintersorg's projects. What's in store for mighty Tyr, eh? Are you releasing albums I should be buying???

 

[Helge-Uwe]

Of course you can hear the lack of rehearsing live. I saw Borknagar twice and everytime I was of the opinion that this or that could've been done better. I'm no musician though. But you hear it. Especially timing-wise (to my ears).
But a 90% perfect Borknagar show is 1000 times better than none at all. I'm sure the members of B that are not into touring know of their limitations in playing live, but we - as fans - are forced to be happy with what we get anyways. And I'm in the lucky situation to be able to see them maybe every 4 or 5 years on stage.

Well. I'd be highly interested in the exact number of booking-offers that Oystein receives. I'm afraid there aren't too many, since Borknagar is a band for "nerds" still. Maybe that results in a lack of motivation to play live more often too.

In general I was overwhelmed by the pure brilliancy of having three (and in the end even four ) outstanding and remarkable singers on stage while listening to excellent songs. Unforgettable. It was very nice seeing Tyr on stage in 2009 of course too. But adding Vortex to the line-up was THE missing piece in the puzzle concerning the vocals and "rounding-off" Borknagar as a whole, transforming a long-time project into a "real" band. At least it feels to me like that for the first time since I'm a fan (since Epic).

 

[lefay82]

i'm quite shocked that nobody of the group did reply on elvina's question.....
the concert is tomorrow...