Immortal Respond To Comments Abbath Made In Interview With The Music

Speaking exclusively to The Music in late September, ex-Immortal singer Abbath shared that he had felt he'd been "fired" from Immortal and had been asked to go to rehab. He said, "It was never my intention to go solo but I really feel like I've been forced into it."

Abbath also claimed, "it was very disappointing that no-one, not even Nuclear Blast, wanted to hear my side of the story".

Today, Norwegian black metal Immortal has responded to Abbath's interview, stating "the conflict was not about anyone leaving the band as Abbath claimed. It was all about his personal problems".

The response comes as a trademark case filed by Abbath closes, wherein Abbath applied for trademark ownership of Immortal's band logo and name.

Immortal detail that "the band had to reschedule rehearsals all the time because of him. Even then, he did not show up. He told the band, friends, and family that he needed to go to rehab again. He had got help from a clinic before. We offered to wait for him to recover this time also. Sadly he changed his decision.

"Instead of trying to solve his problems, he went behind our back and secretly applied for a trademark ownership of the band's logo and name. It was hard to believe that his problems had led him to such a point.

"When his attempt to get the rights was discovered by the band, he all of a sudden went solo. His accusations against the band in media changed from day to day. The fans started to question his version and wanted us to speak about what really happened. Unfortunately, we had to wait until the case was all closed, to make a statement.

"His trademark application was denied and the case closed by Patentstyret in November, 2015. One of the reasons was because he had only contributed as a co-writer of music in Immortal. Nor did he contribute any lyrics or titles to the band's albums. The fact is that the music has always been a result from the band as a unit."

You can read Abbath's interview with us here.