EVERY TIME I DIE Comments On Drummer's Departure

Buffalo bruisers EVERY TIME I DIE have issued the following update:

"After 11 years of being involved with this band, Mike 'Ratboy' Novak [drums] has indeed decided to quit EVERY TIME I DIE. Yesterday morning we received text messages that he wasn't going to continue anymore.

"15 years ago, when someone left their band, they would get drunk, fight their friends, and we'd learn about it from Kurt Loder at 10 minutes before the hour. Today it's in a text messages and you guys find out on a message board.

"To be honest, it was something we have seen coming for some time now, but were uncertain as to exactly when or how it was going to happen, because, as everyone who has ever met him knows, his communication skills leave much to be desired. That being said, he simply didn't feel the need to talk to us about any problem he was having or discomfort he was experiencing with any situation in particular. For the past year, it has felt like we were playing with a drum machine or a pre-recorded backing track. He completely shut off communication with us, contributing only to the band when onstage and opting to take no part in any social activity while on tour or to be present for the filming of our upcoming DVD. Whatever his reasons were, he simply was not a part of us anymore mentally or emotionally.

"So now, us at EVERY TIME I DIE are confronted with a small hurdle which we will no doubt jump in order to become a new version of the killing machine we've always been. The person that fills the vacant shoes Ratboy left is going to be more hungry and more intense and bring a renewed energy to the stage, not simply be able learn the songs and repeat them for a half hour every night. Someone that doesn't take being in a band for granted and wants to destroy everyone and every thing sonically. Someone that can appreciate the amazing people we surround ourselves with and the opportunities we've been given. With our new record, 'New Junk Aesthetic', on the verge of blowing the earth a huge gaping asshole, we couldn't be happier that our insecurities and personal conflicts are in the past."

EVERY TIME I DIE's fifth full-length album, "New Junk Aesthetic", is scheduled for release on September 15 via Epitaph. The CD was recorded at an Anaheim, California studio with producer Steve Evetts (THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, SEPULTURA, POISON THE WELL. Other songtitles set to appear on the album include "For The Record", "Roman Holiday", "Turtles All The Way Down", "Host Syndrome" and "One Quarter Of A Revolution".

Vocalist Keith Buckley recently told U.K.'s Rock Sound magazine that he is excited for fans to hear the new album. "I am really surprised at how it came out," he said. "I did not know that we had it in us to be this fast and heavy anymore. You listen to a lot of bands and you can pinpoint the exact time that the dudes decided they were too old for it and started going through the motions. We are not going through the motions on this record at all, it is a legit punk record."