Norway's Enslaved have parted ways with guitarist R. Kronheim after their recent UK tour.

Norwegian metallers Enslaved have officially parted ways with guitarist R. Kronheim following the band's U.K. tour in March.

"Upon returning from their U.K. tour in March 02, all four members agreed that the situation within the band needed serious evaluation," stated mainman Ivar Bjoernson. "As a result, all four members agreed that R. Kronheim should leave. It is important to stress the fact that R. Kronheim was part of the vote in favor of his own departure. No particular reason for this can or needs to be pointed out, as everything else this sudden and surprising action came as an end to a chain of more or less significant events. True to Enslaved’s own agenda and philosophy, remaining members of the collective Dirge Rep, Grutle Kjellson and I. Bjoernson chose to see it as a necessary change rather than a loss. And changes give birth to new ideas and new worlds."

Enslaved will not seek a permanent replacement at this time, and will instead opt to hire session members Arve (guitars) and Oyvind (keyboards) for all future live events. As for R. Kronheim, it's uncertain whether he'll surface in a new project, but his involvement in Enslaved over the last four years will be missed, particularly his stage antics.

In similar news, Enslaved are already hard at work on the follow-up to last year's Monumension, and have penned two songs ("Queen of Night" and "Horns") for the as-yet-untitled album. The band will enter Grieghallen (Mork Gryning, Aeternus) again in September to record the album. Enslaved also secured artist Truls Espedahl, whose work was seen on Monumension.

Source: Digitalmetal