As reported earlier here, soprano singer Cathrine Paulsen from Norwegian symphonic metal band TRAIL OF TEARS announced that frontman Ronny Thorsen was leaving the band.

Thorsen has just sent BraveWords his side of the story:

"Wow, what a day! I just came home after having dinner with my wife for her birthday. Halfway through dinner my phone all of a sudden started going nuts and messages from all over the place started ticking in. Apparently it turned out that I had left Trail Of Tears. After reading the statement on the official Trail Of Tears Facebook page I can honestly conclude that a certain female singer has lost her final remaining piece of sanity. It is indeed fascinating how much nonsense and lies one person is able to spew forth. In all honesty, the working climate within the band has indeed been difficult for a while. This has been the case for quite some time and the whole thing escalated when Cathrine and guitarist Bjørn Erik Næss became a couple about a year ago and started forming their own little alliance within the band. It was a mutual decision amongst the members that we were going to finalize and release this new album and then go our separate ways as it was no longer possible to see eye to eye on how to run this band. I want to make it perfectly clear that I had every intention to do just that, to release one last killer album and then for everyone to go on with other musical endeavours. This, obviously, was not possible. Cathrine says in her statement that the timing is bad, well no shit. I had no intention to announce any departure before we had honed up to commitments and released this final album. It was my sincere wish that everyone could act as normal, regular adults here and do the right thing, both towards our fans as well as our business partners. Again, a pure ego trip from her side prevented that from happening. What is also interesting to see is that Cathrine failed to mention that both bassist Endre Moe AND drummer Bjørn Dugstad Rønnow have also decided to leave the band. The three of us have done so because we are tired and completely drained from the drama caused by Cathrine and her guitarist boyfriend. So to quote Cathrine's own words, when several members leave then there is indeed a reason for it. Well, three members just walked out on you and your boyfriend Cathrine, including the founder and sole original member of the band, so maybe you should look in the mirror and ask yourself if it`s everyone elses fault or if the problem is in fact closer to yourself that what you like to think. I have been more than fair with Cathrine and stood by her side and supported her after behaviour where few others would. I also find it puzzling that Cathrine has chosen to stay in the band for as long as she has if everything was as bleak, frustrating and sad as she claims it to have been. As for her comments about what happened in Mexico seven years ago, I'm not even going to comment on those, as it is absolutely retarded for someone to have such strong opinions on something that you were not part of. Were you in Mexico Cathrine? No you were not. The last time that the band experienced member exits, I chose to take the high road refusing to to lower myself to the level of those who left, who tried to set a new world record in shit-talking. Because of that I allowed people who I regarded as friends to be brainwashed by only hearing one side of the story. Well, this will not happen again and this time I will stand up for myself. Because of the fact that I have been blocked from the band`s official Facebook page (very mature), you can read my words here on my personal page. So. As something ends, something else begins. I have been planning to launch a new band for a while and there will be some news about that in the near future. Trail Of Tears has been a part of more than half my life since it was started more than 15 years ago. It has been a tremendous ride and I've had a blast, from now on let`s look ahead. There is a lot more fun to be found out there! Stay safe all of you, thanks for your amazing support and I look forward to see you all soon!"

Trail Of Tears new album, Oscillation, will be released on March 22nd via Germany's Massacre Records.

Check out the Oscillation cover art, created by Jan Yrlund below:

Oscillation was recorded at Sound Suite Studio in Marseille, France. A short in studio clip was posted by the band and can be see below. Updates to follow.

(Photo above courtesy of Trail Of Tears' Facebook)