Members of Vitriol have quit and abandoned their frontman at a gas station in the middle of their first headlining tour.
Guitarist Keith Merrow, who joined the death metal band in March after several lineup changes, announced that he, new bassist Brett Leier, and new drummer Andy Vincenzetti ditched sole original member Kyle Rasmussen after his "cowardly and weak outbursts of misplaced anger. As Lambgoat points out, Merrow posted about the situation on his Instagram Story. Here's what his post said:
HE FUCKED AROUND AND FOUND OUT.
I'LL BE HOME FOR THANKSGIVING, BABY.
SORRY VITRIOL FANS. WE HAD TO ABANDON HIM AT A GAS STATION IN VERMONT.
MYSELF, ANDY, BRETT, AND MATT WILL NOT TAKE KYLE'S COWARDLY AND WEAK OUTBURSTS OF MISPLACED ANGER.
WE GAVE EVERYTHING WE HAD, AND NOW HAVE NOW LEFT YOU WITH NOTHING. MASS EXODUS.
THIS WAS THE DARKEST DAY OF MY MUSIC CAREER TO DATE
Vitriol were halfway through their monthlong Liberation Through Punishment Tour across North America with support from Weeping. (Unmerciful were supposed to join them too, but dropped off before it began.) The rest of the tour is obviously now canceled.
Tonight Rasmussen responded to Merrow’s posts with a 40-minute video posted in two parts on Vitriol’s account, and the second one begins with tears. He explained that the Portland, OR group got in a disagreement after playing a show in New York and indulging in "nose beers." (They performed at Bunker del Diablo in Queens on Friday.) He clarified that it was not just him they abandoned at the gas station, which he noted was in upstate New York as opposed to Vermont, but also his girlfriend and his dog Ghost. A state trooper helped them find a hotel, he said.
"Let me just say they didn't just put me in this situation," Rasmussen said, "they put a loving, caring woman who was looking for a new purpose and a new thing to thrive in, you took her and you left her alone in the snow with no reason to believe that we'd be able to find our way out of that situation. You did that to a dog." He added that he didn’t intend for the second video to begin with him crying: “I just cut the video in half and it happened to be in the middle of the most raw moment.”
"From the outside, if I saw this, I would have to assume that this was just a pressure cooker of animosity that exploded into this extreme It was an extreme action," Rasmussen explained. "It was a drugged-out temper tantrum. That’s the truth. Was I the catalyst for it? Was my rage? Was the intensity of my rage the match? Of course. And that’s on me. But I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve been belittled on tour. I’ve been yelled at. I’ve had shit thrown at me. I’ve had people swing on me. I’ve had people name call me. I don’t even name call. I just am brutal with what I think is the truth."
Merrow responded to the videos, posting a message that he and his bandmates left because “Kyle sucks” and “it doesn’t require an absolutely psychotic 2 part video series to explain.” He added that he, bassist Leier, and Vincenzetti will continue to play music together “under a different name because we love each other.”
They are currently driving back to Oregon while Rasmussen has set up a GoFundMe to get home.
