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Mr. Lordi explains the reasons for Amen’s departure: “I asked Amen to leave the band at the end of February”
We reported on our website that the founding member and longtime guitarist of the Finnish monster band Lord, Jussi “Amen” Sydänmaa, has left the band. Sydänmaa announced his departure on his own social media without revealing the reason.
Now the band’s leading figure Mr. Lordi, aka Tomi Putaansuu, reveals the reasons for Amen’s departure on the band’s social media.
“After 25 years of service in Lordi, I asked Amen to leave the band at the end of February. The final decision was made by me, but not just me alone. It was a shared mutual feeling within the band , and we all stand behind it. The topic was discussed multiple times over recent years, almost a full decade to be exact, with a few close calls already happening in the past”, the post starts and continues:
“The reason for this final decison is that the mental pressure got too high to bear for everyone. We’ve drifted apart from each other way too far for things to be fixed anymore. We’ve tried to patch things up many times, but things were never truly reset. Amen clearly wasn’t happy being in the band. Me personally, along with the rest of us in the band, were not happy to be in the same band with him anymore. We’ve grown apart as people and grown apart musically. Old disagreements and obstacles are heavier to carry for others, as we’re all different in our ways – how we cope, process things and heal our wounds. The overall atmosphere between Amen and the rest of us has been quite toxic at worst, and we didn’t have any more new tools to try and fix it. There’s no one to blame for this and at the same time we’re all to blame for failing to make this better again.”
At the end of the post, however, Mr. Lordi makes it clear that there has also been a lot of good, and that he is grateful for Sydänmaa’s involvement in the band’s story.
“With that being said, it’s not all been only bad. Not at all. Quite the opposite. Personally, Amen will forever be my brother-in-arms, my trusty companion and my beloved friend. It just became clear over the years that I can’t and I don’t want to be in the same band with him anymore. It doesn’t change my feelings for him as a person I’ve known very well for 25 years. And it doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t have the highest respect for his input and work for Lordi. I love him dearly and I will always consider him as my true close friend. That’s why the talk I had to have with him was definitely the hardest one I’ve ever done with anyone in the band.”