EVANESCENCE/DARK NEW DAY Drummer Reflects On 2007

Drummer Will Hunt (EVANESCENCE, DARK NEW DAY, MÖTLEY CRÜE, SKRAPE, TOMMY LEE, STUCK MOJO) has issued the following update:

"Well, I've now had a chance to reflect back on an amazing '07 and look down the road to '08.

"2007 was a crazy year for me and the boys [DARK NEW DAY]. It started for me when I recorded the new BLOODSIMPLE record, 'Red Harvest', in New Jersey (it's AMAZING and available now. The single 'Out to Get You' is getting a lot of airtime on Sirius Octane). What an amazing time I had doing that record. It's the most ambitious record I have ever recorded drum-wise and by far the heaviest. Check it out, I promise you will not be disappointed!!!

"Following that, I got a call from my good buddies in STATIC-X. Turns out they needed someone to fill in for their drummer Nick Oshiro who had just broken his hand. I had two days to learn an 18 song set and BAM! I was rockin with STATIC-X for three weeks. That was some great fun and I can't thank those guys enough for calling me and showing me such a good time!!!

"All the while all of this was going on, I was writing and recording demos with DARK NEW DAY for what would become our new album, and doing fly-dates with Vince Neil (gotta pay the bills and what better way than rockin some MÖTLEY tunes with Vince!!!).

"While I was in Las Vegas playing a show with Vince, I get a call from Amy Lee of EVANESCENCE. Seems she, her drummer and guitar player had decided to part ways and she needed a drummer and guitarist to finish the EV tour, was I available, and did I know any guitar players. I said I knew two of the best on the planet and that one was filling in for KORN (Clint Lowery, DARK NEW DAY/ex-SEVENDUST) and the other was available (Troy McLawhorn; DARK NEW DAY/ex-DOUBLE DRIVE). She said that sounded awesome and off we went!!! I found out a day later that Troy and I would be joining Clint on the Family Values tour in the summer and that we would be playing on some of the same festivals over in Europe with KORN as well!!!! How fucking cool was that!!!

"While over in Europe, I got to see MÖTLEY CRÜE at the Castle Donington festival headline one of the stages the day before EV was to be main support for IRON MAIDEN. All I can say is AWESOME!!!!! That was the best MÖTLEY show I've ever seen!!!! They absolutely KILLED!!! Got to hang with Tommy and Vince for a while, said our goodbyes, and off they went for two more shows in the UK and off I went for five more weeks of Euro shows with EV.

"We played our set at Donington the next day, went back to our hotel in London where the next day we (the EV band) were going to fly to Amsterdam for four days of rest and more matters to smoke on! Amy was off to somewhere in Europe to film the video for 'Good Enough'. The morning we were to leave for Amsterdam, I get a call from a frantic Tommy Lee. Seems he rocked the Donington show a little too hard and his shoulder was fucked up beyond him being able to play and where was I and could I fill in for the London and Manchester shows. I was in London about to head to the airport, had four days off, and again, BAM!!!!! I'm on stage with MÖTLEY-fucking-CRÜE with bombs and fire going off all around me, Nikki [Sixx] on the drum riser rockin' with me, Mick [Mars] just absolutely shredding (he is by far the LOUDEST guitar player on earth — God bless Mick Mars!!!!),and Vince screaming his head off!!!!!! HOLY SHIT is all I can say. I couldn't have dreamt it in my wildest dreams!!

"Back in America, it was time for Family Values. I had heard from Chad Gray (HELLYEAH, MUDVAYNE) that BLOODSIMPLE (who are on his Bullygoat label) were trying to get on the B stage for the Family Values tour, but they didn't have enough money to do the tour and pay a drummer, which they didn't have. I jumped at the chance and said I'd do it for free; I was already going to be there with EV and they didn't have to feed, transport or anything else for me, I was just excited to be able to play the songs I had done in the studio with them live. My endorsers DW, Zildjian, and Vater quickly got on board and overnighted me a second kit setup so I would be able to pull it off. Thank all of you, Garrison, Sarah, and Chad for doing that and helping me be able to realize the oppurtunity to play on two stages on such an awesome tour!!! Double duty outdoors in the summer was fucking brutal, but probably some of the most fun I've ever had; it was awesome to say the least!!!! Thank all of you who came and threw down with me on the B stage with BLOODSIMPLE. I think you'll all agree those were some AMAZING shows!!!

"After Family Values it was time to get into the studio and make the DARK NEW DAY album. Could this possibly be???? YES!!!!! We got it narrowed from about 83 demos to the 13 songs we would record for the album. Some of those didnt make it and we wrote three new ones while we were in there.

"How does it sound? Way different, way fresh, and it's awesome.

"On that note, I gotta say, I'm so sick of everytime I see a post about our band it seems it will say 'supergroup' followed by our names and all the bands each of us has played in. Newsflash — WE ARE NOT A SUPERGROUP!!!!!!!!!! Here's another one — NOBODY GIVES FUCK WHAT BANDS WE USED TO PLAY IN — I certainly don't!!!!! DARK NEW DAY is its own entity and I would love to see it treated as such. This new record will do a lot to shed that old skin and put this band in its much-deserved own spot!!!! I can't wait!!!!!! Thanks for wanting to refer to us as a 'supergroup,' but let's put that crap to rest please. When we sell ten million records, then you can call us that!

"Well, I really hope to see all of you soon on tour, and know that some new DARK NEW DAY is on the way! It's been a long time coming, we've all been through so much in the last 2 1/2 years, new kids, filling in for other bands, losing our A&R guy, rehab, divorce, friends passing away, finding many new friends, writing and demoing 80-plus tunes, arrests, being flat broke, etc., which should tell you all one thing — this will be the darkest record you've ever heard from any of us. I said darkest, not heaviest. There are moments that are heavier than anything we've done, but that's not what this album is about. This album was us closing ourselves off from what people expect and writing something that is truly a mark in time — a 'hall of mirrors,' as our producer Dave Bendeth called it. This album is exactly that. It's the story of our lives over the past 2 1/2 years. I'm very proud of it, as we all are, and I can't wait for you to hear it!!!!!"

DARK NEW DAY is the band featuring Clint Lowery (guitar; ex-KORN touring member, SEVENDUST) Troy McLawhorn (guitar; EVANESCENCE, ex-DOUBLE DRIVE),Clint's brother Corey Lowery (bass; ex-STEREOMUD, STUCK MOJO) Brett Hestla (vocals; ex-CREED, VIRGOS MERLOT) and Will Hunt.

Songtitles set to appear on the group's new CD include "Simple", "Hail Mary", "Fiend", "Outside" and "Vicious Thinking".

DARK NEW DAY released its debut album, "Twelve Year Silence", in June of 2005. The disc featured the single "Brother".

Watch video footage of DARK NEW DAY performing an acoustic version of the song "Follow the Sun Down" in June 2006 at the Rehearsals.com studios: