Canadian metal band Witchrot have released a statement, after their confusing (but very entertaining) hiatus announcement went viral on social media in November.
In a statement posted to Facebook last week, frontman Peter Turik announced the band’s “extended hiatus” by saying he had discovered the group’s now-former guitarist had been “fucking [his] girlfriend of almost 7 years”.
The statement ended with the line, “Also our drummer died…,” but no other information was shared, leaving the internet to marvel at what it had just witnessed…
Now, in a statement to media, Turik has confirmed the band’s drummer didn’t actually die, and has explained why he announced the band’s hiatus in such a strange way.
“The other Sunday I posted on Witchrot’s Facebook page that the band was taking a break. Two people I cared about stabbed me a trillion times in the heart with betrayal and that resentment scars like hell fire. It obviously left me feeling wretched. I always hate it when bands stop dead without any updates and I felt, well, might as well let the people know,” he said.
“After writing, I asked Simon, our drummer who quit a couple weeks prior (due to the fact that he has become increasingly busy drumming for Crazy Bones, Gloin, and Brenda), if that was a good idea. He said, ‘Yeah, but say I died, no one will give a shit.’ Clearly they did.
“I am floored by the fact that this post received so much attention, considering we had only around 300 likes on Facebook when I wrote it. The amount of positive feedback people expressed, with regards to my situation along with the praise for our music, was touching to say the least. I thought maybe a couple people in Europe might care or ‘like’ the post but instead it reached nearly every news source on the planet… Fuckin’ eh.”
Turik said he will be continuing the band (which has almost 10,000 Facebook likes at the time of writing) with his bandmate Lea on vocals, and they’ll be using their new-found internet fame to their “full potential”.
“Of course, now we have big plans to tour extensively in the near future,” he said.
“No sense in waiting around, we have so many talented friends that can easily learn our songs in no time. I’ve decided to switch to guitar, that way the guitar will finally sound the way it’s supposed to.”
Witchrot released their debut self-titled EP on 21st October. Stream it in full, below.
