Check out the testimonial.
Vocalist Alissa White-Gluz drew the attention of several news outlets last week for her statement regarding her departure from the band The Agonist. Alissa, who founded the band in 2004, said she felt betrayed by her former bandmates after trying to balance her careers with Arch Enemy and The Agonist. Read her statement here.
Now, The Agonist guitarist Danny Marino has posted a lengthy statement telling his side of the story. Check out the initial excerpt of the text, which was published in full by Blabbermouth :
"As much as we've tried to avoid a public debate that only generates drama and negativity, we feel that Alissa's recent comments cannot go unanswered. We feel we have no choice but to discuss the betrayal that occurred, as well as Alissa's manipulative and unprofessional behavior, her lack of respect for our fans, crew, and producers, her bouts of instability that affected us in the studio and on tour, and the behind-the-scenes decisions that resulted in our choice to change vocalists."
When Alissa says we betrayed her, she's conveniently hiding the year-long (or maybe longer) affair that happened before. She officially agreed to join Arch Enemy without telling us. They started writing an album, planning tours, making business plans without consulting us. Many months later she told us she was joining another band but that it wouldn't affect The Agonist's plans and that we shouldn't worry. In the months that followed, we repeatedly asked her to name the other band or give us any other information, but she said she couldn't tell us. After a few months, we gave up asking and only inquired about tour availability, and even then she said she couldn't say. We were in the dark, frustrated, and we told her that. We had a serious meeting about how we couldn't stay in the dark any longer. At that point, we had shows and festivals booked for the following year and she couldn't say if she would be available for them. She finally agreed to ask the other mysterious band for more details. She came back saying she would need to cancel the entire planned tour and our first European festival. It became clear that we would be at the mercy of the other band's tour forever.
Up to that point, at her request, we hadn't told anyone about this other band. Our manager, agent, and record label still didn't know anything. But with this new information, we at least needed to talk to the people who worked with us, to know how to proceed. I called our record label and explained everything. I hadn't spoken to them in a while because our last album was over two years old and they were expecting us to record another one. I apologized for them not knowing all this, but I explained how Alissa had joined another band that she couldn't tell us anything about, and now we would need to delay recording our album, cancel the festival tour, and interrupt any commitments. Their reaction was one of total shock and confusion. 'What do you mean, 'a mysterious band?' I thought you were in on this whole plan. She told us you were okay with her taking time off to tour with Arch Enemy.' Century Media wasn't in the dark. Actually, they were important throughout the entire lineup change, and they thought, because Alissa told them, that we were all 100% in agreement and that we knew all about it. After recovering from the shock, I asked how long she would be busy. He replied, 'a lot.' And when I asked if we should wait for her, he replied, 'I wouldn't wait.' After calling our manager at the time and explaining everything, he also agreed that because of all this, we shouldn't trust that she would dedicate the time she needed for the band to continue being active and successful.
That was her betrayal. She was playing both sides to get her cake and eat it too. She didn't think about the other four members of the band and their aspirations