After much speculation circulating online regarding the vocalist situation within Asking Alexandria, the band have now officially confirmed that they have parted ways with frontman Denis Stoff and have recruited former vocalist Danny Worsnop to rejoin the group again.

Guitarist and founding member Ben Bruce took to the band’s Facebook last night for a live broadcast video where he explained the situation.

During the over 8-minute video, Bruce explains that following the band’s tour of the UK and Europe earlier this year, the band struggled to reach Stoff, who eventually responded to the group stating “Asking Alexandria does not exist unless I get what’s owed to me.”

On bringing Worsnop back into the fold, who left the band back in January 2015 due to artistic differences and a public yet now rekindled internal conflict, Bruce explains that the decision is “Right for us as a band, right for us as people and friends, and right for Asking Alexandria.”

You can watch the full video via the embed, along with a full accompanying transcript below:

“We have parted ways with Denis, and there are a number of reasons for that, most of which I’m not going to go into detail on here live on this chat because every single member of this band is equally important to me, and hopefully to you guys, and I think it’s very important that we address this situation together. I just wanted to come on here personally and let you guys know a little bit about what’s going on because you deserve to know.

Basically, to a cut a long story short, we didn’t kick Denis out of the band, he just stopped talking to us. As most you know, a couple of months ago, the Asking boys went out around the UK and Europe, doing a bunch of headline shows and a bunch of festival appearances. I had to miss that tour due the birth of my daughter, which was really upsetting. But, obviously, I kept in touch with the guys, every single day we spoke, kept in touch. Everything was going well, everything was awesome, the guys were saying how great it was. I was a little bit jealous.

So yeah, everything was good, everything was fine. The guys got back, we all reconnected, and I was like “Woo! Awesome! Glad it went well. Really upset that I missed it, but I’m proud of you guys. You did it without me”, because they were all nervous about it too.

So that was that. Denis went back to the Ukraine, we all came back to the States, we all had a nice little break. It got to the time where we started trying to organise a video shoot for ‘Send Me Home’, we’re like “Okay. Denis needs to fly back to the States, we’re going to do a video for ‘Send Me Home’, start work on new songs, new music”. Which we did do, we started writing, and we recorded some demos and stuff. Everything seemed fine, and then he just stopped responding. I texted him a bunch, loads of emails back and forth, no response whatsoever.

We were quite confused, like “what the hell is going on?” sort of thing. Maybe he’s having a break, maybe he’s tired, we don’t know. And I received a message from him, something along the lines of “Asking Alexandria does not exist unless I get what’s owed to me.” So I was confused, like what’s owed to him? I don’t really understand. Anyway, long story short, we were left in a bit of a pickle, like a bit of a situation, we had to decide. What do we do? Do we end Asking Alexandria? This band that we’ve worked so hard for for the last decade? This thing that we love more than anything? Do we just throw it away? Do we end it?

We’ve got these tours coming up; we’ve got the Sumerian ’10 Years In The Black Tour’, we’ve got this Europe run that we’re booked for that Denis is supposed to be on, but we can’t get a hold of him, don’t know if he’s coming, don’t know if he’s not coming. And we just sat down as a band and we were like “why the hell are we doing this? Why are we doing this?” And the reason we’re doing this, the reason we started this band to begin with is because we love music.

We were five best friends who loved being around each other. We all loved the same music, we loved playing music together, and that’s why we started this band, and that’s why were continuing this band. We’re a family, we always have been since day one.

Obviously, over the last sort of few months, we’ve rekindled our relationship with Danny, and what happened in the past sucked and it hurt us, and obviously I’ve said things and Danny has said things. That happens. It was in the past and it was shit. But, at the end of the day, we’ve been best friends for a decade, and that’s why this is the move that’s right for us. Right for us as a band, right for us as people and friends, and right for Asking Alexandria. This is full circle, this is right back where we started, and why we started the band.

As I said, we will tell you all of the details as soon as we possibly can, when all of the guys can be with me, and everyone can tell you how they feel. I just don’t feel right doing that myself right now. As I say, the other guys are just as important as I am. I feel it’s only fair that they get to tell their side of the story too.

Long story short, we were just as blindsided as you guys. We woke up one day. We were just like “What the fuck? How is this happening to us again? Like, what is it? Why does this keep happening?’ So, like I said, we made the choice. Do we cancel the tour? Do we break up? What do we do? No, we don’t. We fight just like we always have done. We carry on doing this tour, we come out because we love doing it, and we love playing for you guys. And that really is as simple as it is.

When Denis first joined the band a year, a year and a half ago, people within the music industry, and fans alike, they all told us these different things about Denis’ past, and we got many warnings and we said, “That’s his past, forgive and forget, we don’t know any of that side of things.” So, we gave him the benefit of the doubt, and, you know, there’s no smoke without fire, and I guess we found that out the hard way.

Do I regret the last year and a half I’ve spent touring the world with Denis? Absolutely not. Do I regret releasing and writing ‘The Black’? Absolutely not. Do I go back on anything I said? Absolutely not. ‘The Black’ was a very honest and open record, and that is how I felt at the time, it’s how we all felt at the time. We’ve moved on, we’ve moved upwards.

I’m not gonna sit here and talk shit on Denis. He came into this band, and he was amazing for us at the time. We had a blast with him, we had the best time ever. As far as we could see everything was going great, obviously it wasn’t. There’s not really anything we can do about that. We once again have been left in a rather shitty situation, and we’ve picked ourselves up off the floor and we’ve continued going. Asking Alexandria is back to the way we started with the original fucking members.

The reason that we’re all here today is because of the five guys who started this band about a decade ago in Yorkshire together with the same dream, the same goals, the same love and passion, and those five guys are back in the room together again, and honestly we couldn’t be happier. This is Asking Alexandria.

Thank you guys for all your love and support. Like I said, we will be telling you all everything. Everything from start to finish. So much has happened in the last few months, it’s been pretty devastating, but, you know, onwards and upwards.

You’ll be finding everything out as soon as possible. I want everyone in the band to be able to tell you guys how they feel. There’s going to be everyone from management, to label, to fans, to all of us talking and telling you everything from the very start to the very finish. So, you will know everything very, very shortly. But, just for now, that was a brief summary.

Once again, thank you guys so much, so, so much for supporting us. We cannot wait to get out on the ’10 Years In The Black Tour’. This is gonna be our biggest and most insane tour yet. We will make it a success. This will not slow us down. If anything, it’s fucking fuelled us to go harder, longer, better. We’re fucking back, and we ain’t going anywhere.”

At the time of writing, there has been no response from Stoff.

Stoff, formerly guitarist/vocalist for the bands Make Me Famous and Down & Dirty, joined Asking Alexandria in May 2015. Whilst with the band they released one album, ‘The Black’, via Sumerian Records earlier this year.

Along with rejoining Asking Alexandria, Worsnop is a member of the hard rock supergroup We Are Harlot. He is also currently working on his debut solo album, ‘The Long Road Home’, which is expected to see a release via Earache Records on February 17th 2017.