Avenged Sevenfold Says Goodbye To Drummer Arin Ilejay

Future metal drummers of the world: Get your audition tapes ready. How would you like to be the next man banging the sticks for Avenged Sevenfold? Well there’s an opening behind cymbals as band members announced that they have parted ways with current drummer Arin Ilejay due to “creative differences.”

Arin Ilejay was the band’s second drummer after he replaced fan favorite James “The Rev” Sullivan. Sullivan passed away on Dec. 28, 2009 at the age of 28. Sullivan’s cause of death was from acute polydrug intoxication from mixing the drugs oxymorphone, oxycodone, diazepam and ethanol.

The band posted a statement on its website and social media about the parting.

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

The band had plans to record its seventh studio album this summer to be released in 2016. This could add a speed bump in those plans.

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