SCHOLOMANCE, one of The End Records’ first signings, has officially disbanded. Mainman, Scott Crinklaw, made the announcement via the band’s official website:

“There is no easy way to say it. SCHOLOMANCE is disbanded. This decision was not arrived at easily or lightly. There are few other musicians I’ve played with who I respect more in a purely musical sense than Jimmy [Pitts] and Jerry [Twyford]. Their dedication to playing music is certainly impressive. I have enjoyed playing with them. Not many people realize it, but Jimmy and I played together for almost 10 years. However, what I need to do now is what I must focus on. There are a host of internal/personal reasons for this that I choose not to divulge in public, but I will explain some of my thoughts beyond those issues.

“My musical tastes and attitudes have changed a lot over the last couple years. The metal scene has changed so much that what I was brought up on so many years ago is a scarcely identifiable phantom of its former self. There are things I used to positively love and now can’t stand, both in listening, playing, and lifestyle. Understand that I’m not knocking or abandoning metal whatsoever. I still like metal. I’m not in any way burned out as far as creativity or will to write. Things just work differently in my mind and consequently, come out differently in what I write. There are many things I want to do that I cannot do in the constraints of this band. I have felt very limited in what I can do for a long time, particularly in regard to time signatures, complex rhythms, consistency, and just plain weirdness and heaviness. I want to evolve and do something with no compromises. I have full confidence that when I want to, I can shred with the best of them, but shred is not what I want to do. I’m not looking to push the boundaries of music theory, and I will continue my tried and true method of playing what comes naturally. All I want to do is write songs that are interesting to play, perhaps a little more memorable, challenging, to take the foundation from what I’ve done for the last 8 years in Scholomance and build something from it that hasn’t been done before.

“I fully realize what I am doing, what I may be losing, but also what I might gain. I can say that I will continue to write and play technical music and I can promise, it will be beyond anything I’ve done in this band, or it just won’t be done at all. I expect to decide on a new name for my next band very soon and a site will be launched. If there is any major news on my end, I will post it on the Scholomance website first. I appreciate and thank from my heart every single person who has helped out over the years with reviews, interviews, radio play, promotion, distribution, and conversation, but especially the fans who are into extreme technical music and Andreas [Katsambas] at The End Records for believing in Scholomance enough to release our music to the world.”