BW&BK; recently caught up with PROFUGUS MORTIS frontman Paul Ablaze to discuss the band's forthcoming album, the firing of violinist Emilie Livernois, and officially announce her replacement. The following is an excerpt from the interview, with Ablaze explaining why Livernois got the boot.

“I can pretty much chalk it up to a deteriorated personal and professional relationship," he says. "The band and Emilie were drifting apart on a personal level. We were on the road a decent amount last year, and touring is when you realy get to know each other a little bit more. Emilie was tough to deal with at times, but I’m sure if you ask her she’ll say the same thing about us. We just weren’t feeling it anymore with her on a personal level, and on a professional level she wasn’t digging the new music. She told us as much in an email, and there were hints of egotism in there, so I wanted to kick her out then. We came really close, actually, but we talked it out at a band practice, Emilie put on her best Clinton face and got away scott free. I think that was the catalyst for the deterioration. That’s not to say there weren’t good times, but there was always that kind of negative undertone, something lurking in the background."

It wasn't an easy decision to make considering Profugus Mortis' sound was easily identifiable thanks to the violin within the mayhem.

“We had to sit down and think about that a lot," Ablaze admits. "The question was, when we ask her to leave the band how are we going to continue? Were we going to find another violin player? Me and couple of the guys, when we kind of saw this happening, we discussed that and none of us really said yes, we needed another violin player. We realize that she was a big part of the Profugus Mortis sound and - Emilie played a big role, no doubt - but there were flaws. It seemed Emilie always had to play something. She had some really good parts, but there were also parts that just didn’t need a violin player. I didn’t want to be the guy to say ‘Don’t play this part, don’t play that…’. I mean, who am I to say that? Still, it was overkill at times, where there was just too much going on. We needed to find a balance of some kind."

“One of the other things that also suffered was having a stronger rhythm. If Terry was doing a lead and Emilie was doing a lead and Joe was doing his own little thing, the songs could end up sounding pretty weak. Joe’s not an atmosphere keyboardist playing chords all the time, and what he writes is amazing, so I’m really glad he’s getting more of the spotlight now. It’s absolutely fantastic having our new second guitar player in the band now, because he beefs up the songs like crazy. The first time we jammed…we sound like a frickin’ beast (laughs)."

Profugus Mortis have done a number of shows with their new axeman, but with this interview Ablaze makes his addition to the ranks official.

"The new guitarist is Kim Gosselin, who used to play bass in a band called GOTHERFALL. He’s been a friend of the band for a long time. He plays in a side-project called DEATHROW with our Joe and our bassist Etienne, who is the main composer. Etienne is actually an amazing guitar player but he plays bass for Profugus Mortis because he had pity on us (laughs).”

Watch for the complete interview, coming soon.