death metal vets Pestilence's tour cancelled after racism accusation

Pestilence MetalSucks

Dutch death metal vets Pestilence broke up (for a second time) in 2014, but then quickly got back together in 2016 and then released a new album, Hadeon, this year. They were supposed to tour North America this fall and then play Maryland Deathfest 2019, but the fall tour was cancelled by the promoter after MetalSucks posted the article “Pestilence’s Patrick Mameli Scolds Facebook Follower with a Racist Slur, Propagates Jewish Stereotypes, Defends Donald Trump and Fox News,” which reveals that Mameli maliciously used the N-word (among other things). Mameli took to Facebook to post the above picture and the following response:

Thanks to metalsucks and their followers, our US minitour has been cancelled by our U.S. promotor. We are saddened by this and how people believe a shady person, to say the least, over us/me. 30+ years of Death Metal, and never one accusation of racism, nazism or sexism. What a joke. Pestilence’s line up has always been international. How can that be racist? Good job done metalsucks and the people involved in trying to slander us. Pestilence wil remain with pride and dignity. We love ALL our fans worldwide. No matter race, culture or any difference. Together we stand tall.

And he posted this official statement from the band’s account:

PESTILENCE nor myself are in any way a political band. We do not condone or support nazism or racism in any way. Pestilence exists only to create awesome music for our listeners and fans. We have many fans that know and have followed PESTILENCE since the beginning. We have never been a political band. PESTILENCE exists for over 30 years now and we have never had to deal with any accusations on being racist, supporting nazism or anything similar. On being a racist, “for god’s sake, my “soon-to-be” wife is ASIAN, how could I be rasist? We LOVE our fans of all races, religious convictions and different beliefs” “Being Dutch I can tell that what I said isn’t racist at all. It’s simply translated incorrectly. That word has no negative association in the Netherlands as the infamous n-word has in the US. There is a different inappropriate word in Dutch that is a better translation. All in all, this is nonsense of the highest order.” We will not let our good name be slandered by sites like MetalSucks, that are just out there to create chaos. Most people got our back on this one, but there seem to be some folks out there that still believe those BS stories. My words have been twisted and a ridiculous story was produced to make us look bad. Again: we are not a POLITICAL band. We entertain. That’s all. Don’t let your judgement be clouded by just a few people out there that want to slander bands for their own personal benefit. This time it’s us, the next time it could be you or your band. Stop this madness. This way alot of bands could get banned from the U.S. just because of false accusations and statements. We can not let this happen. The metal community needs to stand up against these type of sites!!!!

The band’s fall tour was set to hit California Deathfest, Quebec Deathfest, Chicago, San Francisco, LA, and more. No word yet if they are still playing MDF 2019.

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