We're disastrously late with this report, but just in case you haven't heard, vocalist Francesco Paoli has left Hour Of Penance right after a few unfortunate (read: fucked up) events.


It all started when the band had to cancel the remaining dates of their European Tour. When the band were ready to play at the "Coyote Ugly" venue in Alicante, Spain, it became apparent that drummer Mauro Mercurio wasn't able to play (due to intoxication), so the band cancelled their set. Then, employees of the venue started grabbing the band's equipment and other belongings, and the police were called in.

Turns out that before going on stage, Mauro Mercurio had smashed a 50-inch flat-screen TV, among other things damaging the place. Mercurio was detained for 48 hours at the police station (his ID had been stolen by the venue's employees), before the whole band made it back home to Italy, forcing them to cancel the last 3 shows of the tour in Spain.


A few days later, Paoli posted a message he and Fleshgod Apocalypse (where Paoli plays drums) dissociated themselves from what happened to Hour Of Penance. He wrote: "Things have changed on May 7th, when I decided to leave Hour Of Penance following the facts happened at "Coyote Ugly", in Alicante. It's been such a severe thing to me that I decided to leave Hour Of Penance. Me and Fleshgod Apocalypse will go on supporting Giulio Moschini (guitars) and Silvano Leone (bass) from Hour Of Penance as friends and musicians."


Again a few days later, Paoli wrote another clarification. There he said he had already made the decision to leave the band before the incident in Alicante. On the one hand, because Mercurio's college career was interfering with Hour Of Penance's live schedule. On the other hand because Paoli had trouble combining the two jobs (vocalist in Hour Of Penance and drummer in Fleshgod Apocalypse) at the same time.

He adds: "The fact that I split-up officially with this line-up, doesn't mean that I will not be able or happy to cooperate with Giulio and Silvano again in the future in the limits of my disponibility, if they will decide to go on with this project."

And: "I would also like to tell everybody still filling their mouth with bullshits about this fact, that Giulio and Silvano DIDN'T abandone Mauro in any way, and of course it's not their fault if Hour Of Penance will not be able to go on. The situation will be clear when everything will be solved."


So in a nutshell, the future of Hour Of Penance stays unclear. But we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, you can read the entire statements on Francesco Paoli's MySpace blog.

Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Hour Of Penance