ASKING ALEXANDRIA Guitarist Says Early Lyrics For New Album Were Directed At Former Singer

ASKING ALEXANDRIA guitarist Ben Bruce wrote a lot of the lyrics on the band's forthcoming about the group's former singer, Danny Worsnop, but ended up re-writing them at the urging of Danny's replacement, Denis Shaforostov.

Worsnop revealed he was exiting ASKING ALEXANDRIA on January 22, explaining in a statement: "Over the last eight years together, we've done some amazing things and created something truly special. I now, same as then, want what's best for the band and at this point in time, that isn't me. ASKING ALEXANDRIA will continue to tour throughout the year and will be working on a new album."

Worsnop added, "I will always support and love ASKING ALEXANDRIA and cannot wait to see what the future holds for them."

In a brand new interview with U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine, Ben said (see video below): "I've written a lot of the lyrics for [ASKING ALEXANDRIA's upcoming] record, and a lot of them, to begin with, were about Danny. I mean, I was fucking pissed off, man. The guy was my best friend, and he just kind of turned his back on me and fucking bailed. And I was angry — I was really angry — and I was upset, so a lot of the lyrics were written towards Danny and a lot of them were quite spiteful and lot of them were quite upsetting. And I sat down one day, and Denis actually sat down [with me], and he was, like, 'You don't want this album to be about Danny. Danny is in the past now. You need to move on. You need to look forward to your future.' And I was, like, 'You're right. You're right.' And I sat down and I re-wrote most of the record — lyrically anyway — with Denis."

He continued" "It was hard to, sort of, switch off, 'cause I was still angry and stuff. Every now and again, there might be something about Danny, obviously, because, being a musician and an artist, I write about what's fueling me and how I'm feeling at the time. But a lot of how I'm feeling is excitement, and I am happy, and I am extremely grateful to still be going, so I just had to concentrate more on that for writing the new record than use my energy, in hindsight, in a negative way, which it completely would have been had Denis not called me out and said, 'Stop being a pussy,' which is cool."

Although ASKING ALEXANDRIA's split with Worsnop came as a shock to most of the band's fans, Bruce revealed to U.K.'s Kerrang! magazine that "it was a day that had been inevitable and needed to happen for… I wanna say a few months, but it's probably more like a few years. Danny just stopped caring about ASKING ALEXANDRIA; his heart wasn't in it anymore. He didn't like screaming, he didn't like heavy music, he didn't like the fans, he didn't like anything to do with ASKING ALEXANDRIA. And that was apparent for a long time. So, it wasn't a nasty, angry phone call, it was just a much-needed conversation, and it had taken a long time to get to that point."

He continued: "Me and Danny had been best friends for a very long time, [but] as sad as it is, or was, it was necessary, and I know for certain that ASKING ALEXANDRIA — myself, Cam [Liddell, guitar], James [Cassells, drums] and Sam [Bettley, bass] — are a lot happier now that Danny is not a part of the group. We don't have to worry about someone being in a bad mood all the time, or not turning up to stage on time. It was, like, 'If you don't wanna be here, just don't be here.' We're relieved now. We can all move on and concentrate wholeheartedly on a band that we do still love and care about."

Bruce went on to say that "I was very angry at Danny for a long time. He was my best friend, and I felt like he'd abandoned me. But I felt like he'd abandoned me long before that phone call. I felt like him not caring about ASKING ALEXANDRIA anymore was him abandoning me and what we'd created together. [But] there was no anger on the phone. I don't really know what I felt. I'm not sure I felt anything. It was more of an, 'All right, man. See you later, dude,' and that was the end of the phone call. It didn't really hit until it all got publicly released, when it was all, 'I guess this is really happening…'"

ASKING ALEXANDRIA last month confirmed that Shaforostov, formerly of Ukranian metal act MAKE ME FAMOUS, had joined the band as its new vocalist.

A new ASKING ALEXANDRIA song featuring Shaforostov, "I Won't Give In", can be streamed in the YouTube clip below.

ASKING ALEXANDRIA is scheduled to make a number of festival appearances this summer, including the Warped Tour in North America beginning on June 23.

"Moving On", the latest single from ASKING ALEXANDRIA's 2013 album "From Death To Destiny", reached No. 6 on the rock radio chart.