Former ATOMKRAFT Guitarist Says TONY DOLAN's 'Constant Moaning' Is 'Getting Embarrassing'

Former ATOMKRAFT guitarist Rob Matthew (currently in AGANKAST) has sent the following message to BLABBERMOUTH.NET:

"It's been on my mind for a few days now after reading the public lambasting of Tony Dolan [ATOMKRAFT mainman, formerly of VENOM/MANTAS] after his latest outburst on the web. It is proving difficult for me to keep a dignified silence. Maybe I'm not strong enough to do that. But as regards [to] Dolan, the situation he is creating is getting worse by the month. Ex-ATOMKRAFT members Ged Cook and Ian Davison Swift keep silent, but I know of their disbelief and frustration they also feeling. You see, ATOMKRAFT was a good little band and some good stuff was recorded. We never wrote any classics, but very few bands do. But nevertheless, we were good and worked damn hard. But what do we have now but Tony Dolan whining on and on about the past and it seems everybody is to blame except himself. At first I understood how he felt about label and management, but for Christ's sake, it's ancient history now... Who cares? The public don't and neither do I and I was in ATOMKRAFT. But what really pisses me off is after 20 years away from the metal scene, I have returned to this bollocks, and after putting my new band together, AGANKAST, I wanted to use ATOMKRAFT as a platform to push AGANKAST... And why not?! I'm allowed that; I gave everything to ATOMKRAFT. But on and on we hear about Tony Dolan's outbursts, which I feel are damaging the little bit of glory ATOMKRAFT had. Tony needs to learn to 'fucking chill out' and show a little respect for other people because his constant moaning affects us all personally and profesionally and it's getting embarrassing.

"After 20 years, I can look back on ATOMKRAFT fondly, and that includes the good and the bad times. Very few musicians get to play infront of 25 thousand people, as we did in Poland, and that is just one example of many great things ATOMKRAFT [has] done. Okay, we were ripped off — big fucking deal. Now, I would be really upset if we had been ripped off big bucks, but we were not, because the people doing the ripping off weren't that clever. They were too busy ripping off another band. But again, it's a long time ago, and in any case, I may have done the same thing myself, put in their situation.

"I appreciate, of course, that Dolan may have nothing to say and might not even be capable of writing music anymore, and that maybe he's just playing the media game to keep his 'name in lights.' I suspect this to be the case. If not, and he's genuinely still got problems, I would say, 'Stop the talk, move on, fuck 'em all, and write some tunes.'"