Avenged Sevenfold and Drummer Arin Ilejay Part Ways

And so the saga of Avenged Sevenfold drummers continues. Like something out of Spinal Tap, the band’s drum throne has seen its share of tumult — The Rev (who tragically passed away in 2009), Mike Portnoy for a spell, and then Arin Ilejay (for the past four years) have all filled the spot — while the rest of their lineup has been completely stable since Johnny Christ took over bass duties in 2003. And now Ilejay and the band have parted ways, although it isn’t clear why.

From Avenged Sevenfold’s website:

Hello Everyone –
We are writing this to inform you all that we will be moving forward without Arin IIejay as our drummer. Arin has been nothing but a positive energy and monster drummer for us over the past 4 years. We love the guy and always will. We are and will always be grateful to him for helping us to move forward through some very dark times. Creatively though, we felt we needed to move in a different direction. While we can’t say more at this time, we are excited for the future and looking forward to sharing our plans soon with the greatest fans in the world. As always we appreciate your understanding and unwavering support.

With Love –
Matt, Zack, Brian, Johnny

So that says… basically nothing. Would love to know more about why Ilejay is no longer with the band — the “creative differences” thing always seems like a cop out, especially with a band like A7X in which Ilejay, himself a replacement member, is very likely not much of a contributor to the creative process — but we’ll have to wait to find out. We’ll also need have to be patient to learn who his replacement is, although that’ll probably happen sooner rather than later.

Hey, Chris Adler, need a gig?

Thanks: Branden M.