The legal dispute over the rights to Immortal‘s trademarks continues to enfold. Previously, it was revealed, that frontman/guitarist Olve “Abbath” Eikemo had made moves to secure the rights to the bands trademarks, only to have that motion opposed by his bandmates, Harald “Demonaz” Nævdal and Reidar “Horgh” Horghagen.
A new report over at Dagbladet.no has a letter from Eikemo to The Norwegian Industrial Property Office which sheds more light as to why he made that move. According to Abbath, a conflict between the the three led to the other two members (Demonaz & Horgh,) implying they wanted to take a break from the outfit this past summer.
A shared rehearsal space between the three parties is also cited in the letter, with Abbath stating that the other two members moved out of it and stopped paying their shares of the rent on it—a move which he perceived as them leaving the band. He also goes on to say that Nævdal hasn’t played guitar since a 1997 injury to his arm and that Horgh was more of a hired gun than a participating songwriter.
It is further revealed that Abbath has largely completed work on a new Immortal album for Nuclear Blast with other musicians. Demonaz and Horgh are both petitioning to have the trademark split three-ways with a ruling expected to handed down in the coming months.
