Drummer Chris Kontos has left FORBIDDEN, effective immediately. He announced the split on social media on Wednesday, November 4, ending roughly three years with the San Francisco Bay Area thrash veterans — and just two weeks after their self-titled album came out.
Kontos, best known as the drummer on MACHINE HEAD's 1994 debut Burn My Eyes, did not hide the reasons. He said he had spent a long time trying to resolve problems with the band, raising them with his bandmates, management, the legal team and the accountants. He listed concerns over financial integrity, a lack of transparency in the accounting, and business decisions he either disagreed with or only heard about after the fact. Those issues, he wrote, "have become irreconcilable."
He still called the new record the hardest work of his life, saying he "put my heart and soul into every bit" of the album and its videos, and thanked BLKIIBLK Records, past members, crew and promoters, as well as the fans for their support. He asked for privacy and said he would make no further comment.
The remaining members answered with a short statement of their own, wishing Kontos well and stressing that the news came as a surprise. "We found out about his leaving the band the same way everyone else did. A social media post," FORBIDDEN said, adding that he had been "an integral part of the process" on the album.
The split follows the September news that Kontos and bassist Matt Camacho would sit out FORBIDDEN's fall US run for personal reasons. That "Chaos By Design" tour with HEATHEN and VOID opened on October 23 in Las Vegas and wraps on November 22 in Los Angeles, with stand-ins on bass and drums.
Forbidden, the band's first album since 2010's Omega Wave, was released on October 23 through BLKIIBLK, the heavy metal imprint of Frontiers Label Group. It was tracked at Sharkbite Studios in Oakland with engineer and co-producer Zack Ohren. FORBIDDEN have not said who will take over the drum stool.