New Jersey metal band Reign have unexpectedly gone viral after sharing a post looking for replacement members after being forced to drop two for “unforeseen and disgusting reasons”.
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The band had been posting as normal to their 7,000 followers on Instagram over the past week, and found one of their most recent updates had reached over two million accounts, much to the surprise of both them and several commenters.
Their rocky band break-up has drawn comparisons to Fleetwood Mac, after remaining members, guitarists CJ, Aiden, and drummer, Cork, told fans: “Due to unforeseen and disgusting reasons, Ryan and Aubrey are no longer in Reign. Their actions in zero way are a reflection of the morals of the band and everyone who is involved with the band.
“The things going on behind the scenes that were brought to the light was simply unacceptable and THAT is the honest and genuine truth. Now that we look to the future we are looking for a new vocalist and bassist because this is 100 per cent not the end of this band and we plan to move the same way as before,’ the statement continued, promising further details in a future post.
This triggered a wave of interest in what exactly Ryan and Aubrey’s transgressions were, given how highly emotive the first post was. A further comment from the band gave some further “context for those who ask/assume the wrong stuff”, with Reign sharing: “Aubrey cheated on our drummer (Cork) with Ryan months ago and kept the relationship a secret for months.
“As soon as we found out we decided it was best to kick out both members because at the time (Tuesday) they were still together and were persistent on being a thing. We kicked them because these are supposed to be people that we can trust and the fact they did that to our drummer was enough for us to do what we did (that’s not the only reason).”
The comment then alluded to “other horrific things that Ryan has done to other women” having come to light, with that the band wanting “absolutely nothing to do with him” as a result.
“To everyone new here that’s never heard of us. We seriously have no fucking clue why this is blowing up the way it is,’ shared Reign in a later post, before sharing a screenshot of the account’s dashboard highlighting that the post had reached over a million accounts.
Formed in 2002, the band are set to play Chaos & Carnage at Pennsylvania venue Reverb this Friday (May 15), despite having to play without a bassist or vocalist, with the band writing: “Please hit us up and share this all over,” as they made a last minute appeal for new members.