New DIRGE WITHIN Singer 'Cannot Wait' To Start 'Slaying Stages Across The Planet'

Chicago metallers DIRGE WITHIN last week announced Travis Neal (DIVINE HERESY) as their new lead singer following the recent departure of Jeremy "Jerms" Genske.

In a new post on the band's Facebook page, Travis writes, "Hello to all the DIRGE WITHIN fans out there and thank you for the amazingly warm welcome!!

"It is always a difficult situation when an established band loses they're frontman and brings in a new voice in the attempts to fill the original vocalists shoes. It can either work or not.

"I have a great feeling that you all will be extremely happy with the new changes in the band.

"My respect to Jerms and all of his future endeavors! He is a great frontman with a strong voice. I have no doubt that he will continue to move forward in his musical career.

"I am extremely happy to be a part of the DIRGE WITHIN family. I have known [SOIL guitarist] Shaun Glass for a long time and it is very cool to finally be able to collaborate with him in a band together!

"A couple weeks ago I joined Shaun along with Frankie [Harchut, drums], Jimmy [McClanahan, bass] and Chuck [Wepfer, guitar] in Chicago for some amazing rehearsal sessions as well as some great times! We all have clicked extremely well and the chemistry shows! Like it was meant to be!

"Again, I have a great feeling that you all are gonna really dig the material that we are working on…

"A lot of you know of me from my work in DIVINE HERESY as well as other projects that I have been involved with.

"I know a lot of you that know of me know that I tend to keep busy and tend to keep a full plate. I have multiple 'projects' that are out and floating around. I am a musician and truly love to create and play music. I do a lot of studio projects with friends and other musicians out there and that is why you all will see my involvement in several projects and that is exactly what they are: 'projects,' nothing that will be toured to support. Just studio projects.

"Truth be told, I only have one band that is active — CYANIDE SERENITY — and now DIRGE WITHIN will be the second 'band' that is active.

"I have always wanted to have two full-time bands that bounced off of each other, kind of like Corey Taylor and doing his STONE SOUR and SLIPKNOT. Both bands are great and both bands are on opposite ends of the spectrum as like my two bands. CYANIDE SERENITY is very technical and brutal with elements of death metal and extreme metal while DIRGE WITHIN is more commercially heavy, which is awesome!

"My involvement in DIVINE HERESY is still happening. However, due to FEAR FACTORY's extremely busy schedule, DIVINE HERESY has become a backburner band for now. I do not know that we will do anything else anytime soon nor do I expect that we will. If anything is to come from DIVINE HERESY, it will most likely be late 2014 [or] mid-2015, and I do not know how much touring will be involved. I can only hope the best, but it is not in my control.

"As for my future, I am focusing on DIRGE WITHIN and CYANIDE SERENITY. I am already working on new DIRGE WITHIN material with the band and it is coming out nicely. I am looking forward to unleashing it on the world!! As well as a remake track off of 'There Will Be Blood'.

"Stay posted to the DIRGE WITHIN page for the info on that track and when it is going to drop as you all will get a real taste of what is to come.

"With all that being said, I do hope that this clears your heads on what is going on with my projects and what you can expect from the future.

"I cannot wait to start playing out with DIRGE WITHIN and slaying stages across the planet!! Rest assured we will all be seeing you very soon; that's a promise!"

DIRGE WITHIN's sophomore album, "There Will Be Blood", was released on April 10 via Rocket Science Ventures/THC: Music. The CD was recorded at Mercenary Studios in Zion, Illinois with engineer Scott Creekmore and producer Ari Mihalopoulos and was mixed at Inner Light Studios with Ari and DIRGE WITHIN guitarist Shaun Glass.