Norwegian black metallers IMMORTAL have "rejected" their nomination in the "Metal" category at this year's Spellemann awards.

The nominees for the largest and oldest Norwegian music awards show, which is often referred to as the country's equivalent to the American Grammy Awards, were announced earlier today (Monday, January 25) and included nods to IMMORTAL for the band's latest album, "All Shall Fall", as well as to the most recent releases from CODE, Г…RABROT and THE CUMSHOTS, all of whom were also nominated in the "Metal" category.

After receiving the news that they were nominated for a Spellemann award, the members of IMMORTAL issued a brief statement saying, "IMMORTAL says no to Spellemann nomination. IMMORTAL has registered that we are nominated to a Spellemann award for 'All Shall Fall'. We hereby wish to announce that we reject this nomination."

IMMORTAL manager HГҐkon Grav told the blog of the Norwegian TV program "Lydverket" that the IMMORTAL members themselves should explain why they have chosen to reject the Spellemann nomination, but offered his personal view on the drama.

"IMMORTAL doesn't necessarily want to be the biggest band in the world, they just want to be the rawest band," he said. "And honestly, one has to say that there are few black metal bands who have kept their credibility while still playing for 80,000 fans around Europe."

When "Lydverket" contacted Marte Thorsby, the head of the Spellemann board, to get her response to IMMORTAL's statement, she said that it would not pose a problem for the awards show. "We're not gonna force anybody to be nominated for a Spellemann award, so we'll remove them from the nominations. This is completely unproblematic."