Old-school theatrical rockers GWAR were scheduled to kick off 2012 with a European tour, but sadly, the band have decided to cancel, which means more bad news for their fans following the November death of their guitarist Cory Smoot, or Flattus Maximus. The reason for the cancellation, however, supposedly has nothing to do with the passing of their beloved member.

The band broke the news to the public yesterday, blaming the cause on "financial troubles," according to the article:

 Ticket sales were slow so promoters started pulling the plug on shows. Finally we had so many blow-outs that we had no choice but to cancel the whole thing.

We can't afford to pay to play Europe; after all, we aren't fucking tourists! But we are extremely disappointed this happened and very sorry for our fans over there, especially in light of recent events. I know everybody over there wanted to say goodbye to [late GWAR guitarist] Flattus [Maximus, a.k.a. Cory Smoot] in a way that only a GWAR show could provide, and we were really looking forward to sharing that with you guys.

The band claims that all purchased tickets will be refunded, and that, again, they are sorry, but "there was nothing they could do." However, they do promise a tour in the future.

[We are] very, very bummed... but GWAR still lives, and will return to reap a bloody vengeance too terrible to comprehend.

Because he's [Smoot] not here, we’re going to have do everything a million times better than we've ever done before. The audience wasn't just going to let us fail.

The tour was set to start January 11 in Antwerp, Belgium.

What do you think of this? Do you think finances are really to blame?

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