GORGOROTH

A spokesperson for the public prosecutor in Krakow, southern Poland, said on Wednesday (Feb. 4) that they might ask for Norwegian help in questioning members of the black metal group GORGOROTH in order to determine whether Article 196 of the Polish penal code (concerning offense to religious feelings) has been breached or not during the band's concert in Krakow last Sunday (Feb. 1). The maximum penalty for breaching the article is five years in prison.

The group, who are accused of having offended religious feelings by displaying naked women, covered in blood and being crucified, also displayed sheep heads, severed and impaled, with the stage splashed with their blood.

“We are also looking into whether the law on protection of animals has been breached,” the spokesperson, Miroslawa Kalinowska-Zajdak, said.

Kalinowska-Zajdak said the prosecutor was following up a complaint from the head of a local television station who rented a TV studio to GORGOROTH for the concert, recorded for a DVD.

The local television in Krakow, which complained about the performance, had acquired broadcasting rights for the show, Kalinowska-Zajdak said.

February 04. 2004