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DEVOID and HALAHKUH announce member departures

Maharashtrian thrash metal bands Devoid (Mumbai) and Halahkuh (Pune) have independently announced partings with respective members in the same week.

Devoid announced earlier today that they were parting ways with their drummer Shubham Kumar via a Facebook post:

It’s with a heavy heart that we part ways with our drummer who now is pursuing his career in Dubai and we wish him the best of luck for his future endeavours. This admittedly puts a damper on things as the material that was almost good to start recording will now have to be put on an indefinite hiatus. We hope to be back but it seems life is catching up at break neck speed and to keep the spirit of Devoid alive is taking it’s toll. It’s during this time that a band truly needs its audience to shoulder some of our weight. Till we haven’t sorted things for ourselves Devoid is going to be put on hold.

– Arun

Halahkuh’s announcement of their parting with bass player Prakhar Soni was announced yesterday. The band also announced a temporary replacement in the form of Shubhrayu De from Pune band Dark Helm:

Well with a heavy heart we have to announce that our brother PRAKHAR SONI has officially parted ways with the band. It is painful for us and him as well to leave something that we have collectively started. He went against all the odds to make this band reach to a level where it is right now. The band will never forget his contributions be it onstage or off-stage.

We at Halahkuh respect his decision of moving on with his life and wish him all the best for his future endeavors. We will always remain to be the best of friends and the place that you have left is always yours, we will keep it safe..

Current scenario : Presenting to you the new overlord of bottom ends Mr Shubhrayu De from (Dark Helm) . Let’s welcome him to the Halahkuh family. He is one monster bass player who will be helping us with a couple of shows ahead.

 

 

Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert from Cynic publicly come out as gay

In an article that took many metalheads by surprise, Cynic’s Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert have now come out as gay. The information was revealed in an article in the LA Times. Masvidal never hid the fact, being very open with when a fan once asked him about his sexuality on Facebook. The two were open about their sexuality to friends and associates but have decided to go public with the news for the first time in the insightful news piece.

The article talks about how the two struggled with their identities, but Paul was the first to come out, in 1991. While on tour, he began exploring drag bars and gay nightclubs. Reinert wanted to join him but was not comfortable with it yet saying: “I knew that, secretly, I wanted to go to those clubs too,” Reinert, 42, said. “But back then, my stereotype of how to be gay was wearing dresses and tank tops. I didn’t have any masculine, metal role models who were gay.”

But Cynic being on tour as the opening act for Cannibal Corpse was not making their coming out process any easier, with the audience not exactly embracing their “anti-macho stage presence.” “That tour was really traumatic for us,” Masvidal says, recalling anti-gay epithets being yelled at them. “We were wearing Indian garb and we had a girl keyboardist, and we were playing to this Paleolithic crowd throwing bottles and yelling ‘Get off the stage…’ It was our first big tour and all we could think was, ‘We don’t belong here.'” What made things worse was then Reinert went on a date with a guy who blogged about it on his website. He says “So for years, if you typed my name into Google, the second thing that came up, after ‘Sean Reinert Drummer,’ was ‘Sean Reinert Gay.'”

The two musicians, who are now in their mid-40s, have decided to be public about it, and to show the world that gay men can play metal too. The article also states that Rienart is currently living with his longtime boyfriend. “Gay people are everywhere, doing every job, playing every kind of music and we always have been,” Reinert said. “It’s taken me years to finally be brave enough to say, ‘If you have a problem with that, then throw out our records. That’s your problem, not mine.'”

Check the source here.

Dave Lombardo asked to leave Slayer?

Earlier today, this message was posted publicly by the official Facebook page of Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo:

Statement From Dave Lombardo Regarding Slayer Australian Tour 2013

I want to personally apologize to all of our fans in Australia who have bought tickets for the tour expecting to see me in my usual place on the drums.

So that you all know the truth, as of the end of the business day on February 14th, I was notified that I would not be drumming for the tour in Australia. I’m saddened, and to be honest I am shocked by the situation.

Last year, I discovered 90% of Slayer’s tour income was being deducted as expenses including the professional fees paid to management, costing the band millions of dollars and leaving 10% or less to split amongst the four of us. In my opinion, this is not the way a band’s business should operate. I tried rectifying it by letting my band mates know, and Tom and I hired auditors to figure out what happened, but I was denied access to detailed information and the necessary back up documents.

I spent the Christmas and New Year holidays realizing I had toured all over the world in 2012, but yet, had not been paid (except a small advance) or provided a proper accounting for a full year’s sweat and blood. On top of this, I was told that I would not be paid until I signed a long form contract which gave me no written assurance of how much or on what basis management would deduct commissions, nor did it provide me access to the financial budgets or records for review. It also forbade me to do interviews or make statements having to do with the band, in effect a gagging order.

Last Monday, I sat down with Kerry and Tom to rehearse for Australia and to propose a new business model that I felt was the best way forward for Slayer to confidently protect itself so we could do what we do best . . . play for the fans. Kerry made it clear he wasn’t interested in making changes and said if I wanted to argue the point, he would find another drummer. On Thursday, I arrived at rehearsals at 1 pm as scheduled, but Kerry did not show. Rather, at 6:24 pm I received an email from the lawyers saying I was being replaced for the Australian dates.

I remain hopeful that we can resolve our issues. But once again, I sincerely apologize to all of our fans in Australia who spent their money expecting to see the 3 of us original Slayer members.
I look forward to seeing you in the future.

Sincerely,
Dave Lombardo

 

Mike Portnoy quits Dream Theater

In what shall come as a huge shock to the entire metal community, Mike Portnoy, drummer for the progressive giants Dream Theater has decided to call it quits with the band after a 25 year involvement, something that is quite unheard of in the metal scene. Here are a few quotes from his official statement.

“I am about to write something I never imagined I’d ever write.

“After 25 years, I have decided to leave DREAM THEATER… the band I founded, led and truly loved for a quarter of a century.

“To many people this will come as a complete shock, and will also likely be misunderstood by some, but please believe me that it is not a hasty decision…it is something I have struggled with for the last year or so….

“After having had such amazing experiences playing with HAIL!, TRANSATLANTIC and AVENGED SEVENFOLD this past year, I have sadly come to the conclusion that I have recently had more fun and better personal relations with these other projects than I have for a while now in DREAM THEATER.

“Please don’t misinterpret me, I love the DREAM THEATER guys dearly and have a long history, friendship and bond that runs incredibly deep with them… it’s just that I think we are in serious need of a little break.

“DREAM THEATER was always my baby…and I nurtured that baby every single day and waking moment of my life since 1985… 24/7, 365… never taking time off from DREAM THEATER‘s never-ending responsibilites (even when the band was ‘off’ between cycles)… working overtime and way beyond the call of duty that most sane people ever would do for a band.

“But I’ve come to the conclusion that the DREAM THEATER machine was starting to burn me out…and I really needed a break from the band in order to save my relationship with the other members and keep my DREAM THEATER spirit hungry and inspired.

“We have been on an endless write/record/tour cycle for almost 20 years now (of which I have overseen EVERY aspect without a break) and while a few months apart from each other here and there over the years has been much needed and helpful, I honestly hoped the band could simply agree with me to taking a bit of a ‘hiatus’ to recharge our batteries and ‘save me from ourselves’…

“Sadly, in discussing this with the guys, they determined they do not share my feelings and have decided to continue without me rather than take a breather… I even offered to do some occasional work throughout 2011 against my initial wishes, but it was not to be…

“While it truly hurts for me to even think of a DREAM THEATER without Mike Portnoy (hell, my father named the band!!), I do not want to stand in their way…so I have decided to sacrifice myself and simply leave the band so as to not hold them back against their wishes.

“Strangely enough, I just read an interview that I recently did that asked me about the future of DREAM THEATER and I talked about ‘always following your heart and being true to yourself’… Sadly, I must say that at this particular moment, my heart is not with DREAM THEATER…and I would simply be ‘going through the motions,’ and would honestly NOT be true to myself if I stayed for the sake of obligation without taking the break I felt I needed.

“I wish the guys the best and hope the music and legacy we created together is enjoyed by fans for decades to come… I am proud of every album we made, every song we wrote and every show we played….

“I’m sorry to all the disappointed DREAM THEATER fans around the world… I really tried to salvage the situation and make it work… I honestly just wanted a break (not a split)… but happiness cannot be forced, it needs to come from within.

“You DREAM THEATER fans are the greatest fans in the world and as you all know, I have always busted my ass for you guys and I hope that you will stay with me on my future musical journey, wherever it may lead me…. (and as you all know my work ethic, there will surely be no shortage of future Mike Portnoy projects!)”

Let us hope he continues blasting the heck out of his drumkit for many more years to come. In Dream Theater, I am dead sure he shall be missed sorely. We wish him luck for all his future endeavours.

( A thank you to blabbermouth.net for the quotes)