A man has gone overboard from the Headbangers Boat, a heavy metal cruise headed up by Lamb Of God. The cruise has been taking place aboard the Norwegian Pearl since Tuesday. According to a statement from Norwegian Cruise Line to Rock Feed, early this morning a 41-year-old man fell from the ship into the water near the Bahamas while the boat was en route to Miami.

Here’s the statement:

On the early morning of Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, Norwegian Pearl was notified that a 41-year-old male guest went overboard while the ship was sailing near the Bahamas on its way to Miami. The authorities have been notified and the United States Coast Guard search and rescue operation is underway. The investigation is ongoing, and we will share updates as appropriate. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones during this difficult time.

Metal Injection co-founder Frank Godla is on board the ship. This afternoon he shared an update indicating that the search and rescue operation has concluded after nine hours without finding the man overboard:

Around 3:30AM I was woken up by some really choppy waters and the boat making a hard U-turn that left me wondering what’s going on. Roughly 20 minutes later, the captain made us aware a passenger went overboard and a search and rescue mission has begun. They made several more announcements over the next hours, and around 6AM informed everyone the program is canceled until 1PM.

An hour ago [roughly 2PM], the captain had to make a very sad announcement to all onboard that after 9 hours of searching, they have no choice but to conclude the rescue mission and resume course to Miami. Everyone on board knows there was nothing easy about this, as the waters remained extremely choppy during the search. Our thoughts are with our fallen metal brother and his friends and family.

Despite the sad news, the attendees remain understanding of the situation and taking things as they come. There’s a lot of confusion, and it’s still unclear how much of the programming will change today. I’d like to point out this does not reflect on HBB, or Norwegian cruises in any way. In fact, after metal cruising for over a decade, HBB has easily been my favorite experience yet.

It’s a shame for this to happen to such a well behaved and gracious group of people celebrating the maiden voyage of what will be extreme metal’s best festival on the seas.

This was the first iteration of Headbangers Boat. Some of the other bands that performed on the cruise in addition to Lamb Of God were Mastodon, Hatebreed, GWAR, and Shadows Fall.

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