Welcome back, Michael.
With the departure of original vocalist Gus Farias back in December, original co-vocalist Michael Barr has returned to Volumes.
The progressive metalcore band celebrated by dropping their first new song in five years, “holywater.”
In a statement the band wrote:
“It looks like we have some explaining to do….
As many of you are now aware, Gus and [guitarist] Diego Farias are no longer with Volumes, and Michael Barr is now back with us in full force.
We want to give you one statement to answer some of your questions and set the record straight, so here it is:
Diego was never fired/kicked out of the band. Over the past few years, we have seen him grow in his career as a producer, and as a result, he lost the desire to tour with the band and then subsequently couldn’t further commit to the overall writing process with the group. Some of you may have noticed that in the past few tours, we have had various replacement guitarists tour with the band. We wish nothing but the best of luck for Diego and know that he is on the fast track of becoming one of the most successful producers in the game.
Gus’s situation in the band was a little bit more complicated, and we did inform him that we wanted to part ways several weeks back. We don’t feel it’s necessary to provide full details of how we came to this decision. Still, it’s honestly no different of any relationship that you have with someone for over ten years on a very personal level and decide things are just not compatible any longer. That’s all there is/was to it. Gus is happy working on his project as Yung Yogi, and he will kill the game moving forward.
We would be foolish to ignore or disregard their massive contribution as performers and songwriters to the band, and all know that they were there from the beginning. We have nothing but love for them and wish them the best. We have also sorted out several details on the business side of things to ensure that they have their rightful ownership of everything that they have done in the band, and will continue to as long as the group is in existence and beyond.
And now…Michael Barr is back! When things were at their lowest, and the idea of discontinuing Volumes was a genuine thought, the other members of the band, who had always kept in contact with Michael, started to have some light discussions about the ‘what if’s.’
That quickly grew into more serious talks, and in a very short frame of time, we were all in the studio together, sharing ideas. It became very apparent, very quickly that this was something that we had to continue on with and make it real. We are so happy to have Michael back home.”
“holywater” marks the first song from their upcoming fourth album coming out later this year on Fearless Records (I Prevail, My Kid Brother, Underoath.)
Punk Goes Prenatt 