SENDING GOOD THOUGHTS TO ARSIS’ JIM MALONE

I’ve met Jim Malone twice, for an amount of time totalling maybe 120 seconds, maybe. The guy would not be able to pick me out of a line-up, I’m sure. But the last time I saw him, I didn’t even recognize him at first – he’d lost an incredible amount of weight. To tell the truth, I didn’t think he looked unhealthy – he wasn’t, like, Calista Flockhart thin or anything – in fact, I thought he looked pretty damn good.

But Arsis has cancelled a whole shit load of tour dates recently, and combined with the fact that they’ve gone through more line-up changes than Guns N’ Roses and Megadeth combined, it was getting to the point where our pals at Metal Injection were even worried that Arsis might be dunzo.

Luckily for fans of melodic tech death everywhere, this isn’t the case, and Malone has now explained all the Arsis drama in a statement:

“I owe more than a few people an apology at this time.

“Over the past few months, Arsis has had to drop off two tours and the fault lies on my shoulders. Those who know me know that moderation is a concept that I am not familiar with. Ever since my late teens, I have moved from one self-destructive behavior to another and it has finally taken its toll on my body and mind. I seem to take everything I do to an unhealthy extreme. This leads us to the reason for dropping off tours with both The Faceless and Carcass.

“Without going into too many details, let’s just say that there is no healthy way lose 100 pounds in four months, as I did late last year. To say that I have been dealing with some issues would be an understatement. These issues have not only affected the basic functions of my body, but also my mood and ability to make rational decisions. Fortunately, I have many supportive people in my life and I have been taking strides to get things back under control. I have been making my best effort as of late and I feel stronger everyday. I think I will come out this a wiser person and be able to run my life better than ever.

“Look for Arsis to be back on the road soon with a possible headliner to make up for lost time. My apologies to our booking agent, our record label, our fans, and anyone who has been effected by my poor decisions.”

So you don’t have to do much reading between the lines to see what happened here.

Look: Malone is a nice guy and Arsis is a great band. Mostly we should all hope he gets what he needs so he can go on making awesome metal.

-AR