French prog-metallers ADAGIO check in with the following update from guitarist Stéphan Forté:

"Hi there Adagierz,

Just arrived back from Japan where we played three shows, did some promo and had lots of fun....

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to make an official announcement before leaving and when I arrived I received lots of emails asking if Gus was still the singer of Adagio.

So first of all, and before anything else: OF COURSE!!!!!!!!! Gus is still the singer and forever will be the 5th Archangel in Black!!!!!!

What happened is one week before our departure for Tokyo, we learnt that his visa has been refused from Japanese embassy in Brazil and that he could not make it. We were devastated...

So Gus proposed us to ask his great friend Kelly Sundown Carpenter (ex-BEYOND TWILIGHT, OUTWORLD) to replace him for those shows. It was first not that easy for us, as Gus is the singer, and doing a tour without your friend is quite .....weird. But he said, (and he was right) that we had to go there and kick ass, in order to go again next time with him.

So our manager called Kelly, who had to learn the songs very quick, and he rejoined us directly in Tokyo on September 11th.We didn't have time to rehearse with him at all, so first reharsal was... the show in Tokyo!!!!

Kelly did a great great job, has a very powerful voice and a great technique, and has been a very cool and funny friend.

Also we had a loooooot of fun with the KORPIKLAANI guys, though it has been very difficult to beat them at the "drinking game" lol.

We would like to thank all the fans there for their wonderful welcome, our Japanese promoter Avex and our record company in Japan, Avalon Marquee, for their incredible work and kindness, and the Korpi dudes for being so cool.

Of course, we would like to thank our buddy Kelly for his great talent, and for his huge help on this one, we had a lot of great fun with ya... Arigato gozaimasu brother!!!"