Cult of Luna’s Johannes Persson slams As I Lay Dying singer & “coward” bandmates

As I Lay Dying have been making a controversial return to music, releasing a new album and touring following vocalist Tim Lambesis’s release from prison, where he spent nearly three years after being convicted of soliciting an undercover police officer to kill his wife. As The PRP points out, Johannes Persson, frontman of Swedish post-metal greats Cult of Luna, addresses the situation in a new interview with The Quietus. He slammed Lambesis and his bandmates (albeit without naming names), as well as those who still support the band, and said “just saying ‘I’m sorry’ doesn’t cut it.” He also suggested Lambesis donate money to a battered women’s shelter. Here’s his full quote:

The background that I’m from – the musical background – was very much integrated with a lot of ethics and it was a very political scene too, which when you come from that kind of scene you think that everybody else thinks the same way in a sense.

So, for example, when a person that just tried to [have his wife killed] – something that happened just a couple of years ago – is out touring and people are happy to have a forgive and forget attitude about it? I cannot get my head around it. I cannot. How is that not a person you now don’t want anything to do with in your entire life?

How can [journalists] write about that band? There are a thousand other bands you can write about. How can you go to their show? How can they not be constantly questioned every single day about it? I don’t understand because with my background we call bullshit on people.

However, it might not sound like it, but I’m all for second chances, as long as that person has shown deep regret and I think that some time must-have passed before you can actually see if a person is sincere enough, and most of all you see it through their actions, not through their words.

For example, OK, let’s talk about this case right now – I’m not even going to say his name – but if you’re sincerely sorry, like I said: fine. Take all your proceedings, everything from every tour and donate it to a battered women’s shelter. Of course, you can take enough to make ends meet but just saying, ‘I’m sorry’, doesn’t cut it, especially when your band called you a sociopath before.

That’s how they work. They adapt to what fits them at this moment. I’m not buying it. You donate your money – at least that’s an action, that’s something that shows you’re going to do something that’s not for yourself. This is also about those coward fucking band members who threw shit on him one second and then when their other band didn’t work well [they welcomed him back] – money talks. That’s how it works.

You can read more at The Quietus.