Sepultura were banned from entering Lebanon earlier this month, after they were accused of being "devil worshippers", according to organizers, forcing them to cancel a planned gig in Beirut's Hamra district on Sunday (April 28).

Lebanon's General Security denied the group artist visas and "banned" them from entering the country, according to a statement made by Skull Session, a regular organizer of metal events in Beirut who had organized for the band to come to Lebanon. "We are as outraged and angry as all of you will be," read the statement.

Skull Session told The New Arab that they had not been allowed to see the group's "ban order" but had been given information by officers who had seen the document. "Basically what we learned is that they are considered devil worshipers, that they have disrespected Christianity, and that they have performed in Israel," Skull Session said. "All of which are of course not true."

Sepultura have since taken to social media with the following statement:

"On behalf of Sepultura and staff, we would like to express to our public in Beirut our deep dissatisfaction with the situation to which we were submitted by the general security office which resulted in the cancellation of our show that would take place Sunday, April 28th at The Palace.

"In 35 years of history, it was the first time we had our entry blocked in a country by a false interpretation of our purposes and values since our intention has always been to promote unity and freedom of expression through music, without making any political, racial or religious distinction.

"To try to compensate everyone who, like us, are frustrated with what happened, we would like to invite you to watch the live broadcast of our upcoming Dubai concert on May 2 in honor of all Sepultura Lebanese fans who could not watch us in person.

Live Streaming Information:

Link: YouTube.com/Sepultura
Date: May 2, 2019
Time: Lebanon - 22:00, Europe - 21:00, Brasil - 16:00, USA 3 PM, ET

"We’d like to thank Skull Session, Sepulnation around the world, all media that has published anything related to this subject, and Embassy of Brazil in Beirut for all the support." - Andreas, Paulo, Derrick, Eloy and the Sepultura team