Avenged Sevenfold have announced that they’ve parted ways with drummer Arin Ilejay. He’d joined the band in 2011, leaving metalcore band Confide. The band didn’t have much more to say than the old “we needed to go in a different direction” line. After the passing of founding member James “The Rev” Sullivan in 2009, former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy stepped in for 2010’s Nightmare, and Ilejay joined as the tourin drummer the following year. Here’s what the band said via their website:
Hello Everyone –
We are writing this to inform you all that we will be moving forward without Arin IIejay as our drummer. Arin has been nothing but a positive energy and monster drummer for us over the past 4 years. We love the guy and always will. We are and will always be grateful to him for helping us to move forward through some very dark times. Creatively though, we felt we needed to move in a different direction. While we can’t say more at this time, we are excited for the future and looking forward to sharing our plans soon with the greatest fans in the world. As always we appreciate your understanding and unwavering support.With Love –
Matt, Zack, Brian, Johnny
While there’s certainly got to be more to the story than their vague reasoning, perhaps it might be because the 27 year-old had never listened to Metallica and Pantera before joining A7X. He’ll certainly likely have his pick of bands to choose from. Hell, maybe he can join Megadeth.
SPONSORED CONTENT FROM QELLO
