August 3rd, 2012 
Grace Duffy 
After a protracted and ongoing saga, Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe has been released from a Czech prison after being held for over a month on manslaughter charges. The ruling of the Prague Municipal Court was made behind closed doors on Thursday afternoon, after what Prague court spokeswoman Martina Lhotáková described as a “16-hour” deliberation. The only condition of Blythe’s release was the payment of bail at 8 million Czech Koruna (roughly $400,000). This ruling follows an appeal of an earlier decision not to grant the singer bail.
According to Blythe’s Czech attorney Martin Radvan, he should be able to return home but will have to return to the Czech Republic in order to stand trial. Radvan told Radio Prague that “…if he wants to continue performing, he will have to return. And he wants to return because he believes he is not guilty of anything he has been charged with.”
As we have previously reported, Blythe was arrested on June 27 on charges relating to the death of a fan after a show in Prague in 2010. The fan reportedly rushed onstage and was pushed off by the singer, hitting his head on the ground and later dying from his injuries. Lamb of God were recently forced to cancel a tour with Dethklok that was due to kick off on August 1st on account of his incarceration.
Elsewhere, a number of artists have come out in support of Blythe, with more than one emphasizing the need for adequate security and properly trained staff at live venues. Jordan Mancino of As I Lay Dying pointed out that “The focus should not be on him. I think the focus needs to be on security and venues because you have any sort of live show, especially metal which is a very intense style of music, you’re going to have a band performing at its most intense level and you’re going to have a crowd reacting in the most intense way. So you’ve got to figure out how those two can exist without harming each other, keeping everybody safe including security.”
The band recently set up a support fund to help cover Blythe’s legal costs. UTG will bring you more updates on the case as it develops – in the meantime, we send our support to the Lamb of God frontman, his bandmates, and their families and fans.
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