“Yes, that one is true,” Bathory tells GSA, when asked about the rumor. “We let him go a long time ago…way back in December actually. We have been recording our third album since January and as you can imagine the band is in lockdown mode in the studio 24/7 writing and recording. No time for extracurricular distractions so we decided to keep it under wraps for now.

“This kind of stuff usually becomes a damn circus which we really didn’t want to be bothered with during the recording process. Somebody leaked it against the band’s wishes, that’s why all kind of semi-retarded rumors are spreading I guess. I can’t follow this shit man — we have better things to do and especially right now we are busy as hell…but you know how this works, everyone can run their mouth on the internet and state whatever they want you to believe. In this case, most stuff you’ll find is probably false since we didn’t make any sort of public statement, so whatever you hear is only a speculation.

“To put this to sleep for now, I’ll answer this: yes, he was fired… but there’s nothing else to announce really,” says Bathory. “We’ll deal with replacing him when we finish the record and have time to focus on that. As for the sound of the band, and the recording process, etc. — Matt wasn’t a writing member so it doesn’t change anything. The process is the same as it always was.” -ZOLTAN

Damn. Wonder who will pick him up. Or if he will be like Fuzz and return to family life.