English doom metal pioneers MY DYING BRIDE have officially parted ways with vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe. The news comes less than a year after MY DYING BRIDE recruited singer Mikko Kotamäki (SWALLOW THE SUN) to front the band for its live appearances in 2025.

Earlier today (Thursday, October 9),MY DYING BRIDE released the following statement via social media: "MY DYING BRIDE have decided to part ways with vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe.

"Please understand that this decision does not come lightly, hence our initial and painful silence while we gathered our thoughts and carefully considered our response to the disengaged, eerily abandoned state we suddenly found ourselves in.

"Our collective decision to move forward without him is not something we thought we would ever be forced to say, but to ensure a continued legacy for what we hold dear to our hearts, we simply have to move past this. Whilst change can be difficult, we are doing our best to bring this new chapter forward with powerful positivity.

"MY DYING BRIDE are not on hiatus, we were never on hiatus. However, we do genuinely wish Aaron all the luck in the world in his new solo endeavours."

This past summer, MY DYING BRIDE guitarist Andrew Craighan was asked by Metalirium how the collaboration with Mikko came about. Andrew said at the time: "Despite all the problems, the band was willing and ready to perform the remaining shows in 2024, but, unfortunately, there was no willing singer. The band only discovered this at the very last minute, which led to the cancelation. Given that [MY DYING BRIDE's latest] album ['A Mortal Binding'], had just been released, the band was not prepared to be sidelined. As a result, a meeting was organized to discuss the possibility of a replacement. Mikko was the unanimous first choice."

As for Aaron's status with MY DYING BRIDE, Andrew said: "As Aaron has, in truth, distanced himself from the band, we are only aware of his activities through social media and online interviews. The band contacted him in March 2025 to enquire about his intentions with MY DYING BRIDE, but he has not responded. We first learned through social media that he was on a hiatus from MDB. Although he states online that he is still part of the band, he has not engaged with us since April 2024. So, in response to your question, the band does not know what his plans with MDB are."

Kotamäki has already played several shows with MY DYING BRIDE in Europe, Australia and Asia.

During a recent appearance on the Iblis Manifestations podcast, Stainthorpe stated about his current status with MY DYING BRIDE: "Well, in fact, the last thing I heard was they're writing new material as well now, which is interesting. I have not heard from Andrew for over a year. And as me and him are the only founder members left… And we never had a manager. Me and Andrew managed as best we could for years and years and years. There was only one stint when we nearly got a manager — Ronnie James Dio's ex-wife, funnily enough. That was a long, long time ago. So me and Andrew figured, 'Well, we could probably do it.' So we had a go of it, and then we had this big bust-up — I can't even remember when it was now, a year ago, a year and a half. And I thought, 'We'll let it die down a bit, and when we come to our senses, we'll get around the table, thrash out our differences and reignite the band.' And then I saw they were gigging without me. So I thought, obviously there's no communication then. So, what do I do? I'll just keep doing what I do until there is some communication. And there still hasn't been. So I'm getting on with my life. I'm not gonna sit there and stew and wait for things to happen. I'm gonna crack on and maintain a busy schedule. But I've no idea who they're gonna use in the studio, if they do a new album. I don't even know if there's a record deal anymore, 'cause everything's gone pear shaped at Nuclear Blast. I don't even know if Nuclear Blast is operating as a full record label anymore. I've heard all kinds of weird stories. And I know for a fact that the guy I used to chat with at Nuclear Blast, he's not there anymore. So over the last couple of years there's been massive, massive changes. So I don't even know if MY DYING BRIDE have a deal. And if they do, I don't know where that leaves me. I've not left the band, and I haven't been kicked out, so I don't understand where we're gonna go. I don't know what the future is. But having been a founder member and in the band for 35 years, I'm not leaving. If they wanna do things without me, well, good luck to 'em."

When Iblis Manifestations host Shayan noted that "it sounds like quite a complicated situation" in light of the fact that a legal MY DYING BRIDE partnership exists between Aaron and Andrew, Stainthorpe concurred. "Yeah. And it'll only get more complicated," he said. "I don't fully understand it. You would hope and imagine that as a founder member who hasn't left, I would have some authority somehow, but it seems not. So I don't really know. I'm probably gonna have to seek legal advice at some point. Obviously, I didn't want to, and I don't want to, but if a record comes out, a MY DYING BRIDE record comes out, and I'm not on it, but I'm still officially the singer, I don't know legally what I'm supposed to do. So at some point, unfortunately, it looks like I might have to seek legal advice, which in this country we have the musicians' union, so it's not a problem. They've got all the experts. And I do know some people quite high up in the business. So I've got people with their finger on the pulse so I can chat with them and just see what's what. But I don't want to. I would just rather keep singing MY DYING BRIDE songs. But maybe I don't have a choice with that."

Aaron also clarified that his involvement with his new band HIGH PARASITE, which released its debut album, "Forever We Burn", in September 2024 via Candlelight/Spinefarm, didn't create any issues with MY DYING BRIDE, despite fan speculation to the contrary. "Yeah, there was never gonna be a conflict," he explained. "MDB do about 15 gigs a year, and [there is] sometimes three or four years between albums. I could be in 10 bands and it wouldn't affect the scheduling of MY DYING BRIDE. I spoke to [HIGH PARASITE bassist/vocalist Danny] Tombs [Lambert] back in the day and I said, 'Here's some MY DYING BRIDE gigs. Make sure there's no HIGH PARASITE [gigs] clashing, any clashing of any gigs at all.' And he said, 'Absolutely fine. That will not happen.' And, well, it never even got that far, because we had a big bust-up before then, and the gigs got canceled anyway.

"You don't sacrifice the main band for your smaller band," Aaron continued. "That doesn't happen. Can you imagine Lars Ulrich saying to METALLICA, 'Do you know what, guys? Can we cancel those big gigs, 'cause me and my mates wanna mess around in this other band?' It doesn't work that way. It doesn't happen like that. And it would be ridiculous to even think that. 'Cause I know some people think, 'Oh, Aaron's concentrating more on HIGH PARASITE than MY DYING BRIDE. So he sacrificed MY DYING BRIDE for HIGH PARASITE.' You don't do things like that. It's utterly, utterly ridiculous. And why would I? MY DYING BRIDE has been an absolute delight for me for 30-odd years. I'm not gonna let that go. And I'm certainly not gonna let another, a smaller band batter it out the way. It doesn't work like that. Literally every musician I know is in more than one band. It's easy. Anyone can do it. It's not an issue."

Asked if he has been in touch with any other members of MY DYING BRIDE, Aaron said: "I see Neil [Blanchett, guitar] every once in a while for a beer in Halifax. But zero communication with the others. They've all got my details."

Pressed as to whether he has tried to reach out to the other members of MY DYING BRIDE since the "bust-up" happened that he mentioned earlier in the interview, Aaron said: "There's no point. There's no point because if they're not contacting me, they don't want to. So it's pointless me chasing them. They're doing what they wanna do and they clearly wanna do it without me."

Aaron went on to say that he is still holding out hope things could be ironed out between him and the other members of MY DYING BRIDE in the coming months.

"The reason why I'm not screaming and shouting is because I genuinely think it's not over," he said. "If I knew it was definitely over, then, yeah, I'd be heartbroken. But I try to remain optimistic that somehow we can work stuff out. I don't see why we can't. We're not kids. We're not a gang. We can surely work something out. Because normally when bands split up, there's normally some sort of financial irregularity, someone's run off with all the money, or there's some infidelity — 'You slept with my wife' or 'you slept with my wife.' Bands split up because of serious — something's gone really bad, really bad. We have none of that, which is why I think we can get back together. But let's see."

Asked what he would say to Andrew right now if the guitarist was listening to the interview, Aaron said: "Give us a ring. Give us a ring. It's not hard, is it?"

"A Mortal Binding" came out in April 2024 via Nuclear Blast Records.

HIGH PARASITE's debut LP, the aforementioned "Forever We Burn" — with Stainthorpe and Lambert at the helm — was produced by Gregor Mackintosh of PARADISE LOST.

Photo credit: Matt Wells

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