EXHORDER On Departure Of Guitarist MARZI MONTAZERI: We 'Were Moving In Different Directions'

The remaining members of EXHORDER have issued a statement regarding the departure of guitarist Marzi Montazeri.

The Houston-based musician, who joined EXHORDER in 2017, announced his exit from the band on Monday (February 14),explaining he "decided to no longer be a part of it."

Earlier today, EXHORDER vocalist Kyle Thomas, bassist Jason VieBrooks and drummer Sasha Horn shared the following collective message via the group's social media: "Some of you may have seen Marzi Montazeri's announcement yesterday that he no longer wants to be a part of EXHORDER.

"First and foremost, we want to thank Marzi for his time and wish him well moving forward. Secondly, we want to clarify that somewhere between the process of writing the new album began and the touring we've done since, it became clear to all parties involved that EXHORDER and Marzi were moving in different directions. This is a natural course of action that happens every day in the world of creativity. An action plan has been in place since we returned from tour to evolve once again. Rehearsals have resumed, and aside from fine tuning, writing for a new album is structurally complete.

"There are no open auditions at this time, so we thank the many that have inquired about the job opening- but we've got this!

"EXHORDER is a band that has been dealing with lineup changes since the 80's, so rest assured there is no doubt that we will continue to thrive. We look forward to bringing the show to the stage once again.

"There may be a face (or faces) that you recognize moving forward, as well as some other surprises. At the very least, we're quite sure you'll enjoy it as much as we currently are!"

In the 1990s, Marzi hooked up with SUPERJOINT RITUAL, with PANTERA singer Philip Anselmo as lead vocalist, and appeared on the band's first two demos. By March of 2010, Marzi rejoined forces with Anselmo to work on what became Philip's first solo project since PANTERA, PHILIP H. ANSELMO & THE ILLEGALS. Marzi recorded THE ILLEGALS' debut album, "Walk Through Exits Only", and toured with the band before exiting the group in November 2015. Two years later, Marzi joined EXHORDER, which released its first album in 27 years, "Mourn The Southern Skies", in September 2019 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Thomas is now the sole remaining founding member of EXHORDER, which released its debut album, "Slaughter In The Vatican", way back in 1990. In February 2020, EXHORDER parted ways with its original guitarist Vinnie LaBella, who wrote much of the material on "Mourn The Southern Skies". The remaining members of the group later issued a statement saying that they would fulfill their "touring and recording obligations for 2020 and beyond."

Two months ago, Thomas confirmed to the "Brutally Delicious" podcast that he and his bandmates had spent much of the coronavirus downtime working on material for the follow-up to "Mourn The Southern Skies".

In February 2021, Thomas told "The Dan Chan Show" that it wasn't strange for him to be the only remaining founding member of EXHORDER. "At this point, I've jammed with so many people over the years — so many different lineups for this and that, fill-ins and all this stuff. To me, it doesn't really matter as much who's there, as long as the material that's being played is being played within the spirit of that band in particular," he said. "And the stuff that we're writing now, it's amazing. I play it for a lot of people that are my confidants, people love the band, and they're gonna shoot me straight. And the new stuff that we're working on, everybody's, like, 'Wow. It sounds like EXHORDER to me.'"

EXHORDER released two albums in the early 1990s through the Roadrunner label — the aforementioned "Slaughter In The Vatican" and 1992's "The Law" — before breaking up, with Kyle going on to form FLOODGATE and also briefly appearing live as the vocalist for TROUBLE, which he later joined on a full-time basis (and is still a member of).

EXHORDER, which is cited by many as the originator of the riff-heavy power-groove approach popularized by PANTERA, recently completed a U.S. headlining tour during which it performed "Slaughter In The Vatican" in its entirety.