The organizers of the Bangalore Open Air fest have announced that American legends, ICED EARTH, will not be able to perform at the event as their visas have been denied.

Here is the official statement from the band on their Facebook page:

Dear fans, friends and fellow metalheads in India.It is with a heavy heart and deep regret to announce that we will not be performing at the Bangalore Open Air festival on the 16th of June 2012. Unfortunately, we have been a victim of terminal visa issues for our American band and crew members, despite having followed every step given to us and retaining one of the top immigration firms in the world to do the job. It turns out some of the regulations have changed without this being made known to us and we are now no longer in a position to get the necessary paperwork in place. This has come as a huge disappointment since we were looking forward to performing for and meeting all of you for the very first time in your wonderful country.We would like to thank the team of BOA for all their help and support along the way. Unfortunately things are now beyond the control of the band and the organizers but we sincerely hope all the metalheads in India will continue to support Bangalore Open Air and all the fantastic bands scheduled to play there.Finally, a huge thank you to all the Indian metalheads for your kind words and wonderful support. We promise to make every effort to make it to India as soon as humanly possible and bang heads with each and every one of you.

The BOA team also commented as :  It looks like the Indian government has once again decided to play spoilsport. We are extremely disappointed to announce that the mighty Iced Earth will not be performing at the Bangalore Open Air on June 16th 2012 due to the denial of their visas by the Indian Embassy. As to why the visas have been denied, well there has been no explanation forthcoming unfortunately.

Despite this setback the show will go on as scheduled and the German melodic death/folk metallers SuidakrA to take Iced Earth’s place at Bangalore Open Air. This would be SuidakrA’s second visit to India. Mighty Kreator is scheduled to perform at the event.