In an unfortunate turn of events, Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork had to cancel their July 11th appearance at Rockharz Open Air Festival in Ballenstedt, Germany. Singer Björn ‘Speed’ Strid suffered a serious back injury while, and needs to take the time off to recover. Unable to really even sit or walk, he could not be expected to come out and rock the faces off of thousands of fans. Unfortunately, they also had to cancel playing the festival last year as well.
Here is Björn’s full statement, as taken from the band’s Facebook page:
“It is with great regret that I have to inform you that I’m not gonna be able to perform at the Rock Harz festival on Friday. It almost feels like a curse, I’m sure most of you know that we had to cancel last years Rock Harz festival as well. We were so excited to make it up to you this year but I guess we have to wait yet another year. I basically screwed up my back 10 days ago, while working out. I felt a shooting pain and stopped immediately. That same night my back started swelling. Next day, I felt better and in the coming days it healed up pretty fast. Then last Friday, I made a small movement to reach for the remote, while watching World Cup Football and I felt an intense shooting pain once again. I thought to myself: “This is gonna be bad”. I was right. I’m currently not able to sit and can barely walk. I went to a chiropractor two days ago and he was unable to do anything since my back was too swollen and my torso was too twisted. He sent me home with anti-inflammatory pills and painkillers and told me to take those 3 times a day for 3 days and come back on Thursday, which is tomorrow. I also asked him if there was any chance for me to perform on Friday and he said: “It’s gonna take a miracle and I definitely don’t recommend it. I also informed him that we were gonna drive down in a van to Germany and then his reaction was: “Don’t do it”. So here I am, strapped to a couch feeling sorry for all the fans who had plans to finally see us at Rock Harz. I’m so sorry, I wish there was a way.. hope you understand. Make sure you enjoy the rest of the awesome bands that are playing the festival, it looks like a real good line up! Our guitarist Sylvain will be there regardless so hopefully you’ll run into him and he’ll buy you a bunch of drinks Cheers, we’ll see you soon!”
Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for him.
