Jeremy Goddard, from New Brunswick thrashers RUSTED DAWN has released the following statement about the band's recent hiatus, drummer change and upcoming shows:

"Hello banger brethren, it has been some time since our last update, and for that, we greatly apologize. We know we kinda left everyone hanging over the summer without any news, but we are gonna make that up to you right now by letting you in on all things that are currently happening in RD land.

First and foremost, we will address the concern that we’re guessing is top priority: what's the deal with our pal Luke? As some of you probably remember we had booked a cross-Canada tour for May of this year but that was thrown in the trash. Due to an injury that left luke with a horrible claw for a right hand that definitely couldn't hold a drumstick for a month straight. The injury happened at a gig in Moncton last April. Luke had to begin a few months of drumming inactivity followed by some physiotherapy to try and get his hammer hand back in order.

BUT! That is, of course, the info you already knew...

Over the summer, the decision came about that it would be in Luke's best interests to leave RD's drum throne. With concerns of repetative strain on his wrist, the entire band were incredibly worried that in the case that Luke should start playing with us again, he'd be risking even further injury, due to the speed of our tunes. Anybody who knows the band as well as Luke can definitely understand that we don't ever want to be responsible for Luke to never be able to bring the shrapnel behind his kit again, even if he's not doing it in the speed metal arena. Top that off with Luke needing to finish school, as well as to keep cash flowing in to pay off the wonderful debt that being a student rakes in... and you've got yourself a few pretty good reasons to call it a day. So, after discussing the matter with Luke, the mutual agreement that he should step down as RD skinsman was reached. This was a total bummer as Luke is a solid dude as well as drummer, and had gotten to share in a lot of the most memorable experiences we've ever had playing together as a band. All his dawgs in the RD camp wanna wish Luke the best of luck with everything here on out, and to thank him for all the hard work he put in during his time in the fold.

That leaves the question, what is happening with RD as well as who is gonna be hammering the sticks and pedals? The answer is Mr. Tom Blizzard. If you've ever even looked into heavy music coming from the east coast, you should already know who the guy is. His bands IRON FIST and HARD CHARGER are some of the fewer, heavier touring machines to ever set foot outside of the maritime provinces, and have definitely laid much of Canada and beyond to waste already. We've been jamming like fuck with Tom behind the kit, and the RD machine is sounding nice and tight once again. And, to celebrate our current going's on, we're getting the fuck out to play some gigs with our friends in Diemonds from Toronto!

October

21 - Nicky Zee's (Fredericton)
23 - The Mason Jar (Sussex)

Some other quick things, our MySpace has been beautifully re-vamped by top

dude Peter of east coast grinders THY FLESH CONSUMED, thanks Pete! Check out his band here (he did their MySpace too!).

Now, the only other thing we can think to mention would be regarding the album. We know some people are getting pretty damn impatient on this one! But please don't let your patience run out yet... 'cause you're still gonna have to wait a bit! The album is currently being re-mixed/mastered by mister James Gauthier, who's also responsible for producing our boys in WE, THE UNDERSIGNED's new record. James is currently turning the record into the beast it needs to be. As for a release date? Well, as we said before, we are NOT gonna release this one until we can tour properly behind it. Therefore, since we're already into october this means booking something too qucikly would be a short-notice disaster... we are looking at April of 2010 as a date where we can release the album and immediately launch some cross-canada (and beyond) destruction in support of the new record.

That's about all we can think of for now... expect A LOT of other updates to come within the next little while, as there are some big things in the works, and we'll also be posting some new tunage for you all to check out real soon, cheers.

-Jerm Warfare"