Sweden's EVERGREY have issued the following announcement from leader Tom S. Englund, via their new blog, The Grey Area:

"Our new bass player's name is Jari Kainulainen!

Some of you might know him as a former member of STRATOVARIUS and we are extremely happy to have him in the band as we know he will improve our sound in a great way which he already proved when we rehearsed together.

Me and Henrik (Danhage) talked after the rehearsal and both said we had goosebumps and this coming from a a guy playing bass. Before it’s always been like - hey whatever it’s only bass - but now we really feel that Jari will bring our sound up to a new level.

We got along great and it of course also helps a lot that Jari is a very experienced player when it comes to playing live with his several world tours together with Stratovarius as proof.

This was one of the main things we were looking for in a bass player except for the playing of course, so that we wouldn’t end up with a person who after 100 gigs finds out that this was not what he was meant for, cause this is, whether you believe so or not, a very weird and demanding life that let’s you experience the greatest things in the world as well as the sickest, most draining moments of utter insecurity - that of course immediately vanishes as soon as we get to play for you guys!

We are so much looking forward to the coming months of recording and playing and it honestly feels like a fresh start and an injection I think we needed.

I’m going to leave you with a few words from Jari himself."

Says Jari, "What can I say? When I heard that Evergrey was searching for a new bass player, I immediately contacted Tom to let him know that I was extremely interested!

Then they asked me to come and audition for them. I can’t even start to explain how nervous I was!

But everything just matched, and sounded great! And before we knew it we were all shit faced and celebrating the Scandinavian way! See you on the gigs!"