Finnish metallers Amoral have issued the following update:

"We are sad to inform you that Niko is leaving Amoral. A while ago he sat us down and told us that he's having serious motivation problems and feels like it's time to do other things. We were in shock, as none of us saw this coming. We were sure Niko was enjoying the ride just as much as we were. We tried reasoning with him, even offering him a year-long break to do whatever else he feels like he needs to do, but quickly realized he had already made his mind.

Of course we were devastated at first. Niko was just as crucial part of the band as the rest of us, and also our frontman, the voice of the band. Was this the end of Amoral? The rest of us discussed this and were happy to see that we all felt that there's no way we're stopping now. We've worked too hard to get where we are, and we enjoy playing together, so why would we give it all up? We decided to look at the bright side of the situation: this would be our chance to pursue in a more melodic direction, something we've wanted for a long time but weren't able to do with Niko. This shouldn't come as a surprise for you who've been following our doings. The "rock n' roll vibe" has been present in our live shows and songs since our second album Decrowning, and especially on the last album Reptile Ride, which had some melodic vocals and a lot of stuff not suitable under the "technical death metal" -tag we've had on us…

We'll leave it to Niko to explain his decision more specifically. Niko, good luck with whatever it is you decide to do in the future. It was a pleasure having you in the band, and you'll always be "one of us", just like your Amoral tattoo suggests.

Niko's last gig with us will be at the "Thrashia Läpi Yön" - festival at Tammela, Finland on August 23rd. After this we'll take a long break from gigs, and start writing the 4th Amoral album. We already have a lot of material to work on, even a couple of songs 99% ready, and we're hyped about how these sound! No release dates or any kind of deadlines have been decided on, as we wanna get this just right."

Source:	blog.myspace.com
Band profile:	Amoral