New EVANESCENCE Album Gets Release Date; Guitarist TROY MCLAWHORN Rejoins Band

Guitarist Troy McLawhorn has officially rejoined EVANESCENCE after leaving SEETHER in March. McLawhorn first joined EVANESCENCE in 2007, but departed a year later and got the job with SEETHER. He quit that group earlier this spring over what he said online was "personal friction" with one of the other members.

In a posting on his Facebook page, McLawhorn wrote, "I will be back with EVANESCENCE again for the new album and tour. I'm really happy to be back again and can't wait for everyone to hear the new music!"

EVANESCENCE frontwoman Amy Lee wrote on her Twitter profile, "YES!! I'm proud to announce that Troy McLawhorn is back in Ev! Album is sounding awesome! We love you Troy! Welcome back."

A photo of McLawhorn and Lawhorn in the studio during the recording sessions for the new EVANESCENCE album can be seen below.

The management of EVANESCENCE denied to BLABBERMOUTH.NET in April that McLawhorn had rejoined the band.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, the news that McLawhorn had rejoined EVANESCENCE came from SEETHER frontman Shaun Morgan, who wrote on Twitter, "Interesting news about our old guitarist. Can anyone guess? No, he's not coming back. He went to another band. Little anti-Shaun club. Any more guesses? . . . So, good fucking luck to Amy Lee and Troy."

It's not clear where Morgan heard that McLawhorn was rejoining EVANESCENCE. Morgan and EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee had a nasty break-up in late 2005 after dating for over two years, and bad blood remains.

McLawhorn said on Facebook that he left SEETHER over "a very personal invasion of trust" but has not elaborated further.

EVANESCENCE is recording its new CD with producer Nick Rasculinecz, who has worked on recent albums from ALICE IN CHAINS and DEFTONES. Lee told Spin.com that his involvement has made it "more of a rock record." In the same interview, she described the album which is due on October 4 as "fun," adding, "That's a totally new thing for us. When I listen to our old music I see that's where I was in my life at that time. This has been a long trip and parts have been hard. But it's about not taking everything so seriously this time."

Lee first attempted to record the album last year with producer Steve Lillywhite, and at the time said that it was going to be heavily inspired by electronic music. She explained why that project was abandoned, saying, "It wasn't coming together right. Steve wasn't the right fit. We were on this experimental trip, trying a bunch of new things, seeing what would fit. I did a lot of the writing without the band. And then when we tried to pull the two worlds together, it wasn't working."

She added that EVANESCENCE is a full band again, saying, "I've never felt so supported by my band members. We've really relied on each other. And everyone being a part of this album, from the ground up, is an entirely new approach for us. There's nobody that's just coming in to play guitar. Everybody's invested. We're more truly a band now than ever before."

The current lineup also features guitarist Terry Balsamo, bassist Tim McCord, drummer Will Hunt, and programmer Will "Science" Hunt yes, there are two Will Hunts in the band.

Photo below courtesy of Amy Lee's Twitter profile