It’s a sad occasion whenever a band member is forced to leave their group, particularly when the reason that compelled them to depart is bad blood between bandmates. Case in point is the recent “departure” of guitarist Scott ‘Beltsy’ Pritchard from Melbourne metal mainstays Blood Duster, who was sacked after committing multiple egregious music sins.
According to a recent statement posted to the group’s Facebook page, longtime guitarist Beltsy was fired from Blood Duster over “his interest in the heavy metal band Anthrax, the most unmusical band ever”. The band insist that while the guitarist may claim “he left because of family commitments”, he was asked to leave following “numerous warnings”.
“The 12” single released by Anthrax ‘I’m the Man’ was found to be playing at his house on more than one occasion and he had been warned about listening to them and especially to their later output,” they continue. According to the band, later output is determined as anything released after Fistful of Metal, a.k.a. Anthrax’s first album.
“He was warned that listening to Anthrax could undermine his ability to judge music with any objective sense of good or bad,” Blood Duster add, before individual statements from band members recounting the ways in which Pritchard’s love of Antrhax affected his work, including “coming to rehearsals in big shorts and saying ‘not’ well after it was amusing”.
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“Scott also often made for odd conversation during Blood Duster rehearsals, often making these bold proclamations,” the band adds. Among the offending statements were that “Christian metal is an actual real and proper thing that people like himself can enjoy” and that “Metallica only really hit their stride after Reload and that Lulu was a masterpiece”.
“I reiterated the band’s view that former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz is not someone to be looked up to but he simply put more ninja turtles stickers on his guitar and ignored us,” said vocalist Tony ‘Tone Bone’ Forde. “We really do wish Scott the best of luck with his future little endeavours and we don’t want to sound too bitter about US deciding to give HIM the boot.”
The band claim they were also recently forced to ask drummer Dave Haley to depart after he expressed an appreciation for “the sound of all black metal that was released after Darkthrone’s A Blaze in the Northern Sky“. Fans will still be able to see Haley play with “his little side project” Psycroptic, “a band with a name that is completely made up”.
The obviously tongue-in-cheek post from the band concluded with a string of tour dates, which the band have dubbed the “Good fucking riddance to bad rubbish Australian full blown national tour”, which Blood Duster will soon embark upon with a “far superior line up” that will include former drummer Matt Rizzo. See the full post from the band below.
