Lamb of God and Megadeth drummer Chris Adler revealed the motivation behind the heavy metal band’s decision to cancel the remaining European tour after the Paris terrorist attacks. According to Blabbermouth, Adler disclosed the “really, really disappointing” situation while interviewed by host DJ Elliot Segal on “Elliot In The Morning”, a morning radio talk show.

On November 13 2015, six chilling terror attacks claimed the lives of at least 130 people and wounded hundreds in Paris. Three armed attackers opened fire in the Bataclan concert hall during an Eagles of Death Metal concert, killing eighty-nine people. After the devastating tragedy, alternative metal band Deftones cancelled their remaining European tour dates and soon after, punk/indie rock band Titus Andronicus cancelled their show in Paris, stating:

It is not a decision we have arrived at flippantly but, after much soul-searching and hand-wringing, we see no other recourse. The terrorist attacks of last week have shaken us deeply, surely placing us in the majority of musicians around the globe. Music and art should offer a safe haven from the world’s many worries and woes, wherein Artist and Audience alike can find empowerment in their vulnerability. The brutal assault on this sacred space offers no clear path forward and, without precedent to guide us, we must err on the side of caution, for the sake of our fans, our touring staff, and the venue staff, in addition to ourselves.

Similarly, the unstable atmosphere after the Paris attacks triggered questions of not only the band’s safety, but the well-being of Lamb of God’s crew and audience. Adler detailed that after performing with Megadeth in the U.K and playing a concert in Germany, the band arrived in Tilburg, Holland. There, they learned that the night of their show in Germany, an ambulance filled with explosives and a plan to attack a stadium was discovered two hundred miles away.

In Tilburg, Lamb of God faced “a specific security concern” when two grown men fled the venue after photographing the facility for hours. Security informed the band of the disconcerting situation, affirming that despite lacking credible evidence of a planned attack, surveillance would be heightened to protect against possible threats.

Adler elaborated on the resulting tour cancellation:

 What really made the decision for us was not that we were scared, not that we were intimidated to play, but the fact that we know now that something… we’ve been given information that something was amiss. So if we go ahead with this and somebody breaks in and does something horrible, more than likely the band will be able to run off the back of the stage and out the back door and we’ll be fine. But we”re putting our crew in danger, we’re putting everybody that’s bought tickets in danger, and they have no idea that they could be hurt or coming into this event, that something could be going on. So it felt very irresponsible for us to go ahead with the show, knowing that something wasn’t quite right. It doesn’t mean that something was going to happen — we have no idea — but just knowing… Had we played the show and something had happened, we’d never forgive ourselves.

In a recent interview with Fuse, Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton commented that the concert tragedy was “devastating for everyone involved in the music world, either as fans or as artists” and that the threat “really, really did hit home”.

However, the Groove-metal-icons will launch a highly anticipated, immersive tour across the United States alongside pioneering heavy metal band Anthrax. The announcement was followed by the unleashing of a lyric video accompanying the second track from their most recent album VII: Storm Und Drang.