Only hours after the band announced their new record deal with Victory Records, Blackguard is back in the news announcing the departure of keyboard player Jonathan Lefrancois-Leduc (also in Ex Deo). The band issued the following statement:

"For those of you who have seen us play recently with Leaves' Eyes and on the Nevermore tour, you have no doubt noticed the absence of our Keyboardist Jo. We're sad to say that Jo has officially left the band to pursue other endeavors.

There's no drama here, and we're all still good friends. Jo simply felt his time with the band had come to an end and we have amicably parted ways. Blackguard will remain a 5 piece for the foreseeable future."

The band had the following to say about the Victory Records deal: "At first (and second) glance this might seem like an odd pairing, but Victory is a very hard working label that we are all 100% behind. The Victory staff has welcomed us with open arms and are committed to pushing our next release to its full potential.

It's no secret that we've been touring extensively this past year and a half, and it's comforting to know we have a label backing us that are willing to work and put in as much effort as we have for the release of our 3rd record (2nd under the name Blackguard).

That being said we are hard at work completing our next record which has a tentative release date for April. The release will coincide with a North american tour that isn't announced yet, but when it does it's going to turn heads."

Source:	blogs.myspace.com
Band profile:	Blackguard