Vio-lence guitarist Phil Demmel has announced that he will be exiting the long-running Bay Area thrash metal band after playing a final show with them this coming Sunday, February 11th in São Paulo, Brazil, and replacing him is Ira Black (ex-Vicious Rumors, Heathen and Metal Church). Demmel's upcoming exit comes nearly two years after the departure of guitarist Bobby Gustafson (ex-Overkill) and roughly one year after they parted ways with drummer Perry Strickland, leaving vocalist Sean Killian as the sole remaining member of the "classic" Eternal Nightmare lineup.

In a video posted on social media, Demmel (who is now in Kerry King's solo band) said: "I am announcing that this Sunday will be my last show with Vio-lence. The timing is weird, I know, and it doesn't really coincide with the Kerry thing. It's not that, 'Oh, that got announced, so now I'm quitting this, stopping this,' whatever you wanna [call it], retiring from, whatever. It's been, I guess, in the works for a bit. My status has been undefined for a while. I'm kind of doing things that I felt comfortable or fell into my schedule or whatever. But given just the latest state of the band and where I feel I belong with it or feel tied to it, I just think that my time is at an end. I'll always identify with the band. Me and [drummer] Perry [Strickland] started this band in high school. It's cool to be going to places that we haven't been. I'm feeling that [Vio-lence singer] Sean [Killian] is… We've gone far on different pages. I guess we've always been on different pages. But I don't feel like I fit in with what the objective of this is anymore. And in light of some current events [laughs], I felt compelled to make the break."

The former Machine Head guitarist went on to say that he "thought about maybe doing a home show" as a way of "saying goodbye", but admitted: "I don't feel like I need that. I feel like playing those [comeback shows in Oakland in April 2019] with Perry and Deen [Dell, bass] and Ray [Vegas, guitar] and having those two magical days and doing some other stuff that we've done, writing the five songs, doing the EP, I feel fulfilled," he said. "And anything further kind of feels forced. Actually, before this [Latin American] tour [kicked off], I honestly didn't wanna come. [But] I was committed to it. I wasn't gonna back out. I'm committed to the dudes. But I think I'm done. I think that I've done what I wanted to do with this band."

Source:	instagram.com
Band profile:	Vio-lence