Sepultura slam authorities after they're banned from performing in Lebanon

Sepultura have expressed their “deep dissatisfaction” with Lebanese authorities after they were barred from entering the country.

They were due to perform at Beruit’s The Palace – Aresco Center this week, but were denied entry by the country’s general security office, who refused to process their visas.

Organiser Skull Session pressed authorities to find out the reasons why and were told it was due to the band “insulting Christianity, that the band members are devil worshipers, that they held a concert in Israel and that they filmed a video clip supporting Israel.”

Skull Session issued a lengthy statement to deny the claims and confirm they didn’t play in Israel.

Now Sepultura have issued a statement of their own, which reads: “On behalf of Sepultura and staff, we would like to express to our public in Beirut our deep dissatisfaction with the situation to which we were submitted by the general security office, which resulted in the cancellation of our show that would take place on Sunday.

“In 35 years of history, it was the first time we had our entry blocked in a country by a false interpretation of our purposes and values since our intention has always been to promote unity and freedom of expression through music, without making any political, racial or religious distinction.

“To try to compensate everyone who, like us, are frustrated with what happened, we would like to invite you to watch the live broadcast of our upcoming Dubai concert on May 2 in honour of all Sepultura Lebanese fans who could not watch us in person.”

The stream will begin at 10pm Lebanese time (8pm BST) and will be available to watch via Sepultura's YouTube channel.

Sepultura add: “We’d like to thank Skull Session, Sepulnation around the world, all media that has published anything related to this subject, and embassy of Brazil in Beirut for all the support.”

Sepultura are on tour in support of their 2017 album Machine Messiah.