Posts Tagged ‘randy-blythe’

Lamb of God Vocalist Randy Blythe’s Manslaughter Trial Begins in Czech Republic

Instagram: drandallblythe Randy Blythe has traveled back to the Czech Republic, where his trial on manslaughter charges began today (Feb. 4). Before entering the courtroom, the Lamb of God vocalist posted a photo of himself in a suit and tie (seen to the left), with a message to his fans: “And so it begins,” wrote Blythe on Instagram . “I am calm & prepared. Everyone, thanks for your good thoughts and prayers. Have a nice day, y’all!” As widely reported, Blythe was arrested this past summer on charges of manslaughter stemming from the 2010 death of a 19-year-old man named Daniel, who passed away a few weeks after allegedly being tossed from the stage at a Lamb of God show. Daniel’s family is seeking $530,000 U.S. dollars for the loss of their son, while Blythe also faces 5 to 10 years in prison if convicted. According to The Gauntlet , at the Prague City Court today, Blythe stated, “I’ve kept my word. I said that I would come back to court today and I did. I do not shy away from responsibility. I’m not a person who runs away from problems. But I do not want to be punished for something I did not do. The fan’s death breaks my heart. I never saw Daniel and I never came in contact with him.” The trial, which is expected to run from today through Friday, Feb. 8, began with both sides presenting their cases. In a rough translation from the Czech news site Cesky Rozhlas , the prosecution claimed that Blythe pushed Daniel with great force to the point that he fell off the stage over a metal barrier and hit his head on the ground. The prosecutor went on to explain that the young man hit the back and lower part of his brain, suffering internal bleeding. Blythe testified that the security at the club was insufficient and that several fans tried to rush the stage. As mentioned above, the Gauntlet reports that Blythe insisted he never saw Daniel or came into contact with him. According to WTVR , Lamb of God’s drummer Chris Adler and manager Larry Mazer testified on Blythe’s behalf, praising his character and calling him a quiet person despite his onstage persona. Tomorrow’s proceedings are expected to include testimony from 12 witnesses who attended the 2010 concert. We will update this story as news breaks. Check back with Loudwire for the latest on Randy Blythe’s ongoing trial in the Czech Republic. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/tags/randy-blythe/” title=”See More of the Latest News on Randy Blythe” align=”center”]

Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Receives Date for Czech Manslaughter Trial

Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Two weeks ago, we reported that Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe was officially indicted on manslaughter charges in the Czech Republic. It is now being reported that Blythe will stand trial for the controversial charges on Feb. 4, 2013. Upon being indicted, the Prague 8 District Court had two decisions they could have made. The court had three months to either delay the trial in order to continue the collection of evidence, or set an official date. That decision has now been made and Blythe will begin legal proceedings on Feb. 4. “We have issued Randy Blythe with a court summons, and he is obliged to attend the hearing in person,” said court spokeswoman Martina Lhotáková  [ via Prague Post ]. “The trial will determine the culpability of Blythe and his potential punishment.” Blythe has stated that although he could easily hide out in the United States to avoid court proceedings, he will cooperate with the Czech legal system. The vocalist was jailed for over a month earlier this year on accusations of manslaughter after a fan died from head injuries supposedly sustained at a Lamb of God show in 2010. “I want my name cleared,” Blythe stated in a recent interview . “I have to go around the world and tour, you know? That’s what I do. I’m not going to hide here. I’m an innocent man. I’m going to go to court and see what happens.” According to Lhotáková, Blythe’s Czech trial is expected to last four days. Although the date has officially been set, the court still has the option of sending the case back to the prosecutor and police for further investigation. Stay tuned for more news as it breaks. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/lamb-of-god-manager-responds-randy-blythe-czech-republic-indictment/” title=”Next: Lamb of God’s Manager Responds to Randy Blythe’s Indictment” align=”center”]

Fan-Generated Randy Blythe Online Petition Receives U.S. Department of State Response

Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com The U.S. government may not have been forthcoming with information to Randy Blythe before the Lamb of God singer traveled to the Czech Republic and found himself serving a jail stint over the summer, but they’re definitely keeping an eye on his alleged manslaughter case now. A Lamb of God fan from Brandenburg, Ky. was responsible for creating a petition on the White House website asking for the government’s help as the singer prepares to head back to the Czech Republic to answer to the charges. The vocalist was arrested this past summer when the band returned to play a show in Prague. Local officials claimed that Blythe was involved in tossing an audience member from the stage and that the man in question later died from an injury sustained when he hit the ground. The petition garnered 29,000 signatures over a 30-day period, which is 4,000 more signatures than necessary for it to receive the requisite attention. Michael Posner, the Assistant Secretary of State of Democracy for Human Rights and Labor, drafted a statement on the Randy Blythe matter. It reads as follows: We appreciate your inquiry about the case of D. Randall Blythe, who was released from detention in the Czech Republic on August 3, 2012, and returned to the United States shortly thereafter. Mr. Blythe has publicly stated his intention to return to the Czech Republic to face trial for the alleged manslaughter of a Czech man at a concert in 2010. He recently told MTV, ‘It’s the correct thing for me to do … this poor young man’s family deserves some answers.’ Pending Mr. Blythe’s trial, we cannot discuss the details of his case. We are closely monitoring the progress of his trial. The Department Of State noted in its 2011 Human Rights Report that in the Czech Republic, ‘The laws provide for the right to a fair trial, and the independent judiciary generally enforced this right.’ We expect that the Czech government will make all efforts to ensure a fair, transparent, and timely trial for Mr. Blythe, and guarantee full protection of his legal rights under Czech law and his welfare. If you would like to know more about what the Department of State does for U.S. citizens overseas, please visit our website at Travel.State.Gov. General information on U.S. human rights policy is available at HumanRights.gov. On Nov. 30, the Czech state attorney filed criminal charges against Blythe after reading the case file presented to him about the investigation. The Prague court has three months to set a trial date. Blythe, who already served a 37-day stint behind bars this summer, could face a long-term sentence if convicted. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/best-lamb-of-god-songs/” title=”Next: 10 Best Lamb of God Songs” align=”center”]

Lamb of God’s Chris Adler Talks Touring, Awaiting Randy Blythe’s Trial, Future Music + More

Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com Lamb of God drummer Chris Adler was the guest on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show this past weekend. Adler spoke all about Lamb of God’s current trek with In Flames, Hatebreed and Sylosis as well as awaiting the trial in Prague for frontman Randy Blythe . Adler also spoke of the brotherhood of Lamb of God and the band’s future music. Read the full interview with Chris Adler below: I had the chance to see you guys at the start of this tour, happy to have you guys back and finally doing a tour for ‘Resolution.’ Yeah it feels good, we did a pre-release week of small shows in January and then the plan was to do the longer summer tour but things got derailed a little bit but we’re very happy to get on the road here and work the new record. Has the chain of events from the last few months created a frustration that’s resulting now in greater aggression onstage? I think we’ve come to a point where we’ve realized how fragile, what we do is. Not that we were taking any of it for granted before but it does become a bit routine after 16, 17 years of playing these shows. To have something like this happen you get shocked by it and it definitely was a wakeup call to us all – especially for this tour because with the situation not resolved and Randy [Blythe] having to go back to trial sometime next year, they said somewhere between January and April so we can’t make any plans after this tour. Right now we’re looking at every night as the first and last so it’s really exciting and putting a lot more positive energy into the show. Before you get on tour and you start to turn gray and drink too much and everybody is sleeping all day and now everybody’s up and laughing and we’re having a good time and getting along. The shows have been really good and very energetic. In what ways has the situation in Prague change your appreciation for each other as band mates and also individuals? Yeah I think we’ve all come through some periods with the band that not a lot of bands are able to get through. Obviously we start as friends and things go awry and end up in fist fights and people leave and somehow we made it through that – knowing that together we are much greater than the individual parts. It’s taken a long time but I think we’ve come to the conclusion that we do have a lot of respect for each other and what we’re able to do together. Having this situation go down and having to lose a family member – to us the band is family so to have this happen was just shocking. We’ve all come together as much as we can to support Randy and try to do the right thing. It’s a complicated situation but we’re certainly hoping for the best. Randy has stated that he’ll return to the Czech Republic to stand trial, if necessary. Should that happen what’s the Lamb of God contingency plan for the down time while he’s in Prague? Right now we’re being told that the trial will be between January and April so we can’t really make any plans, we can’t tour. What we may do is begin some sort of preliminary writing process and hopefully the result that we’re hoping for this trial, we’re able to get back out on the road. I think the plan is assuming all is going to go well – which may not be the case but we certainly hope it is – we’re going to do two more world tours on ‘Resolution’ so the idea would really be to go into about the middle of 2014 on this record and then begin writing. If we can get a head start on that – that would be great. All summer long, we spent at home and I was lucky to spend the time with my daughter and wife but I know that Willie [Adler] and Mark [Morton] have already spent some time writing some new material and Randy while he was doing nothing but time, writing some stuff. I think we’ve got the element there to begin this creative process I’m just not sure how quickly we’ll be able to get to it. Do you think there’s going to be any kind of a different direction of the music being as what has happened or in terms of anything that you’ve heard or lyrics of anything that you’ve seen? As you mentioned earlier there certainly is a continuing sense of frustration about this scenario and what happened and obviously the important part of this is that somebody lost their life and we’re not going to glance over that we have to try and do the right thing – so in that there are certainly a lot of deep thoughts on what we do and how we do it and what it is we’re doing with this music. I think what it has in what I’ve heard from the guys and what Randy has explained to me in his time there – I think it is going to be a bit darker. I think it is going to go in some directions that maybe a band like us, at this point – maybe we just kind of lighten up and in the distance rest on our laurels kind of thing but I think this particular circumstance is going to push us even further in a dark direction. Full Metal Jackie will welcome Robb Flynn of Machine Head to her program this coming weekend. She can be heard on radio stations around the country — for a full list of stations, go to fullmetaljackieradio.com .

Disturbed Singer David Draiman Urges Fans to Support Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe

Ethan Miller, Getty Images As reported yesterday (Dec. 3), Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe has been indicted on manslaughter charges in the Czech Republic by the State’s Attorney Office in Prague and, as a result, will likely stand trial in the near future. Following the news of Blythe’s indictment, Lamb of God’s manager offered a lengthy statement . Many musicians are also speaking out, one of them being Disturbed frontman David Draiman who took to the band’s official Facebook to speak his mind about this situation. Draiman states: “MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS MY BLOOD, OUR FRIEND RANDY BLYTHE OF LAMB OF GOD HAS NOW OFFICIALLY BEEN INDICTED ON CHARGES OF MANSLAUGHTER. THIS IS A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE. HE IS BEING A MAN AND STANDING UP TO THESE CHARGES. SHOW YOUR SUPPORT BY ON THEIR FACEBOOK PAGE AND TWITTER PAGES, RAISE AWARENESS AMONGST YOUR FRIENDS, AND TAKE THE TIME TO DONATE TO HIS DEFENSE FUND ON BOTH PAGES. YOU CAN ALSO HELP BY WRITING YOUR LOCAL ELECTED OFFICIALS AND PRESSURING THE U.S. DEPT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS/STATE DEPARTMENT TO GET PERSONALLY INVOLVED. WE STAND BEHIND RANDY, HOPE ALL OF YOU WILL AS WELL. AS ALWAYS, MUCH RESPECT. -DAVID P.S. BEEN USING CAPS FOR YEARS, NOT CHANGING. BIGGER PROBLEMS IN LIFE. BUILD A BRIDGE AND GET OVER IT.” Blythe was arrest was arrested in June of this year in regard to an alleged incident where a man died a few weeks after an apparent stage fall at a Lamb of God concert in the Czech Republic in 2010. The vocalist spent five weeks in a Czech prison before being released in early August. If Blythe is convicted of manslaughter, he could face 5-10 years in prison. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/lamb-of-god-randy-blythe-indicted-manslaughter-charges-czech-republic/” title=”Next: More on Randy Blythe’s Indictment” align=”center”]

Lamb of God Manager Responds to Randy Blythe’s Czech Republic Indictment

Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Earlier today, news broke from the Czech Republic that Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe has been officially indicted for the charge of manslaughter. Now, an update has come from the Lamb of God camp, who have issued a statement on the case’s most recent development. This latest development begins a new chapter of Blythe’s controversial case, and the indictment means that the District Court of ‘Prague 8′ has three months to either set a trial date for Blythe, or postpone the decision for the sake of continuing the ongoing investigation. Lamb of God manager Larry Mazer has responded to the indictment with a new statement. Mazer states: After a three month investigation, the prosecutor in the Czech Republic has decided to move forward with an indictment of Randy Blythe on the charge of manslaughter with intent to cause bodily harm. Obviously, we intend to fight vigorously against these charges as we feel that in no way did Randy intend to cause bodily harm on the young fan who subsequently died from injuries sustained at the show.  As he has stated previously, Randy intends to go to Prague to defend himself at trial. While it is a tragedy that a Lamb of God fan died following a performance by the group, in no way do I feel that Randy did anything improper that led to the young man’s injuries and subsequent death.  The price of a ticket to a show does not entitle audience members access to a band’s stage.  In the years since the murder on stage of Dimebag Darrell Abbott, performers of all genres have had to become more guarded while performing in response to the dangers presented by fans trying to become part of the performance.  We believe that Randy responded professionally to the numerous amount of fans rushing the stage that day, a number of them captured on videos that have been posted on the internet. We have testimony from the venue operator that acknowledges lax security and an improper barricade being used that evening. Numerous testimonies from fans also were contradictory as to the actions of the multiple fans that tried to access the stage. At this point, all that the band, myself, and our lawyers can do is to present a defense and try to convince the panel of judges who will hear the case that Randy is innocent of all charges and that his name and reputation need to be cleared and that he be permitted to carry on with his life and career always mindful that a fan passed away after a Lamb of God performance. Stay tuned for more on the Randy Blythe case as news breaks. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/lamb-of-god-randy-blythe-indicted-manslaughter-charges-czech-republic/” title=”Randy Blythe Officially Indicted by Czech Republic for Manslaughter Charges” align=”center”]

Rock Titan of the Year – 2012 Loudwire Music Awards

Last year, our most popular category in the Loudwire Music Awards was the Rock Goddess of the Year, celebrating the talented women in rock. But we also got some feedback from readers asking us to pay tribute to the men who best represented rock music over the year. We’ve answered the call with a brand-new category in 2012 – Rock Titan of the Year. A massive amount of bands have shaped the world of music in 2012, but some singular musicians have been especially important. Along with releasing quality music and/or touring this year, these titans have accomplished a variety of notable achievements. By making gigantic impacts, overcoming tragic circumstances, or both, we give you seven nominees for Rock Titan of the Year. Check out the nominated musicians and be sure to vote in the poll below: Corey Taylor, Slipknot/Stone Sour Slipknot / Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor  accomplished a great deal this year. Not only did he headline the 2012 Mayhem Festival with Slipknot, but Taylor also released ‘House of Gold & Bones Part 1′ with Stone Sour. ? Jesse Leach, Killswitch Engage After vocalist Howard Jones announced his departure from Killswitch Engage , original Killswitch singer Jesse Leach returned to the band, receiving a red-hot reception from fans. Leach has also been working diligently with his bandmates on a new Killswitch record. ? John Baizley, Baroness Baroness released the brilliant double album ‘Yellow & Green,’ this year before surviving a terrifying bus crash while touring in England. John Baizley sustained some incredibly serious injuries from the crash, but despite the physical toll, Baizley has shared his story with fans, radiating an overwhelming amount of positivity. ? Phil Anselmo, Pantera / Down Legendary vocalist Phil Anselmo had prominent releases from both Down and Pantera this year. Down released their acclaimed ‘Purple EP’ while Pantera’s ‘Vulgar Display of Power’ got a 20th anniversary release with the added track ‘Piss.’ Anselmo even performed in both of the 2012 ‘Metal Masters’ clinics. ? Randy Blythe, Lamb of God Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe was unfortunately on the wrong side of metal’s biggest news story of the year. After releasing ‘Resolution’ with Lamb of God early in the year, Blythe persisted through over a month in Czech prison, while refusing to run from his controversial charges. ? Slash The iconic top-hatted guitarist took 2012 by storm with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. Slash released ‘Apocalyptic Love’ this year, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and helped spearhead a reunion performance of Guns N’ Roses sans Axl Rose. ? Tony Iommi, Black Sabbath The news of Tony Iommi ‘s lymphoma diagnosis hit metal fans straight in the gut this year, but the ‘Iron Man’ has been steadfast in fighting the condition while writing and recording a new Black Sabbath album. Iommi was also able to perform with Sabbath for three shows in 2012 and continues to work on a new Sabbath album. ? Voting for the 2012 Loudwire Music Awards closes on Jan. 15 at 11:59 PM EST. Fans can vote once per hour, so keep coming back to make sure your favorite band wins! Sorry, you need to have javascript running to see this poll. Get Notified When Winners Are Announced Enter your email address below to receive the daily Loudwire newsletter, which will include notification of our full list of winners in the 2012 Loudwire Music Awards, as well as the top stories in rock and metal. Email