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So,this has been a long time comin. Many different issues got in the way of giving it the time and space it deserved. But now that things are calmer, with nothing relevant to distract us.It seems the time is right.
Some of you may have noticed a new man behind the kit at our shows since Oct. And indeed Perra unfortunately had to leave the band late last year. It certainly was a sad occasion, he`d been with me for many a year now,and a more dedicated and professional muso its hard to meet. But necessity dictates sometimes and accept it we must. It was an honour to be able to work with the man. Perras an excellent example of how best to deal with the big issues in life. Never one to advertise his illness, nor trumpet a victim-hood status, and in fact if Id known the extent of it, I certainly wouldnt have been slamming Whiskey for 25 nights in a row on tour with him,as much fun as it was. While some will whinge and moan about every damn thing under the sun, Hes a man who loves what he does and just gets the fuck on with it. I learned a lot from him in this regard and have nothing but Love and Respect for that weird Swedish fella.
Below is his statement about his departure.

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As most of you know, I have been a permanent member of the band for five years now, and I also toured with them before that, back in 2010. Over the years we have toured and played shows pretty much all over the globe, and I will always be grateful for that. However, I have a serious health situation due to my chronic kidney failure (around 18% function of the kidney as we speak), which sometimes gives me severe head aches and low on energy and just tons of other issues that I am already getting tired of talking about myself. I will eventually get another transplantation going, but this disease has to get even worse to start with, for now I'm good as long as I take my med's. On a side note, I am turning 45 in a couple of months, and I have already went through a transplantation 14 years ago, so life is certainly catching up on me, I'm not 25 anymore, to put it mildly.
I have always worked hard to become a good drummer (not always a good musician/human being, yet that's another story) and my aim was to be part of a band that released killer albums and toured the world, and be happy while doing it. I haven't been doing anything else these last couple of years, so you say, and so I know... So what is the problem then? Well, I can't commit 100% to the band due to all these up's and down's health issues, so I have decided to step down. I have always thought that the day when it's not fun or when I am not enjoying it myself, I'd quit, and now this day has come. I am unable to perform the way I want with the band without jeopardizing with my own life and it just feels retarded, honestly, I don't want to do that. I can't be on the road for several months (or even weeks) at this point, I don't want to, and I don't feel confident at all, so it was time to face facts here, I'm done. I 'm passing the torch over to some other drummer to carry and hopefully they will be able to do it with power and force, just as this band demands.
The last thing I did with the band was recording an EP that will hopefully be out next year, that was done last weekend in Fagersta, Sweden with engineer Pontus Ekwall at Studio Cave . It was me, Ro and Felipe tracking some kick ass songs that I really like. I hope that the final result will kill, I am satisfied with the performance and the best part of all is that I had no problems recording/tracking the songs, a great ending for me in a band that I had a lot of good times with, as well as bad.
...and to KK, Ro and Felipe; Don't let the bastards grind ya down!