Lamb of God is scheduled to headline the Mayhem Cruise this December. But what was supposed to be a routine show this week in Prague, has turned into a legal debacle for singer Randy Blythe.

Two years ago, a 19-year-old fan died as the result of injuries reportedly sustained at a Lamb of God show in the Czech Republic. Blythe allegedly threw him off the stage. When he entered the country this week, he was arrested and charged with manslaughter, which could carry a 10-year sentence if he is convicted.

This came as a total surprise. The band learned of the fan’s injury and subsequent death well after the show.  According to Rolling Stone, Lamb of God’s management posted $200,000 in bail, but Randy remains behind bars.

ECR reached Natalie Camillo with Adrenaline PR which represents the band to ask how Randy’s arrest might affect the Mayhem Cruise. “We’re totally in the dark right now,” she said. “We don’t even know how this is going to affect the upcoming tour, let alone the cruise.”

If these YouTube clips do indeed represent the fan and incident in question, it looks to us like Randy is guilty of nothing more than any other metal singer would do.

Fortunately, there’s some time before the cruise for all of this to get sorted out. And Randy doesn’t seem to be taking his imprisonment too hard. He’s learning Mongolian, apparently. Now, that sounds like the kind of guy I want to go on a cruise with.

That said, let’s not overlook just how tragic the fan’s death in this case is. Metal is about fun; no one should get hurt, let alone die. However, it would further tragic if all metal performers had to worry about charges like this being brought against them for something that could happen at any high-energy show. Luckily, everyone on the Mayhem Cruise is likely to be too sun soaked and full of joy to put themselves or anyone else at risk.

If you want to follow this situation closely, an entire website dedicated to news about it has launched this week.