My band split up.

[Blazer]

Slavantas at what turned out to be our final show when we co-headlined Sjilvend Rocks 2012, from left to right: Wouter Jaegers (Me) Guitar, Sander Giesberts Drums, Jacques Joosten guitar, Pascal Bastings vocals and Pieter Jaegers Bass.

Well it has been a long time coming but things finally came to a head today and the strange thing is that I'm strangely calm, relieved almost with how it all went.

I told you guys before about troubles with our singer and how everything we set out to do was shot down and further internal struggles. Our singer wants to continue Slavantas, and play the tunes we wrote but presently nobody of our current line up wants to go along with him in that.

So perhaps Slavantas will continue with another line up but I won't be part of that, I don't want to work with our singer anymore, the mojo we once had just isn't there anymore.

But still, I can look back at what we have done with a sense of accomplishment and pride. We have opened for Vengeance and for Saxon and have played some places I never thought I'd ever play and have gotten to know people who have steered my life into directions I never would have gotten into if it weren't for the band. Not to mention my growth as a player, my level has gone up with leaps and bounds.

Sjilvend Rocks was a fun show to do, we at least didn't play a lousy show with which we ended what we had going.

Here's my favorite song, which is quite fitting since its about saying goodbye: "Down beneath"


As for me, I'll be alright, I might join another band or continue working with Jacques and Sander, who knows but first of all, let me take it easy for a short while, I don't feel the need to hit the ground running.

[tazzboy]

Sorry to hear about that man.

[thorton077]

I remember reading about your drama queen singer! At least you don't have to deal with him anymore, though it's said your band is gone. It's great that you're at peace with it, and that it all went well. Have fun with your break from being in a band.

[Ricky D.]

Everything has a beginning, middle, and end. You'll get into something new and build on what you learned with this group.

[Tim Armstrong]

Quite a long ride as I recall. Best of luck with your next project!

Tim

[Blazer]

Originally Posted by Tim Armstrong

Quite a long ride as I recall. Best of luck with your next project!

Tim

Yup we founded the band back in 2007, rehearsed for over a year, played our first show in September 2008 and had our first personnel change soon after. We then played one show as a four piece before Jacques joined and we played two shows before our binge drinking bass player was fired and my brother filled in on four string duties. Then Josh our drummer threw the towel in the ring because of him having to take care of his ill mother (who has since passed away) and we had two drummers filling in since then.

It's funny: five years since we found the band and during that time whenever I was asked what band I was in and said "Slavantas" people'd say "You guys still around, everybody gave you at least six month before you'd explode."

Well, it has been a wild ride: many members that came and went, Spinal Tap moments, falling outs, punch ups but also rocking shows, enthusiastic audiences and a lot of fun.


And the thing I will always remember was Josh our first drummer doing some DIY dentistry, during an early rehearsal. We were working on what became a song called "Road to victory" which we played twice before scrapping it because of it being over 12 minutes long.

Josh always had very bad teeth and he refused to go to the dentist to get his mouth all sorted out. I was working on some riffs when Adrian, our then bassplayer went "WTF is Josh doing?" so I looked up and I saw Josh reach into his mouth, pull a tooth out and just flicking it over his shoulder.

That was Slavantas in a nutshell: a tooth being pulled out with bare fingers.

[motwang]

Not my type of music, but instrumentally you sounded pretty good. Unless he is supposed to sound that way the lead singer is off key!!! Rest up and find someone that CAN sing. Hang in there, you will reget not staying involved in music if you don't.

[Blazer]

Originally Posted by motwang

Not my type of music, but instrumentally you sounded pretty good. Unless he is supposed to sound that way the lead singer is off key!!! Rest up and find someone that CAN sing. Hang in there, you will reget not staying involved in music if you don't.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to post more of our music. You have no idea how many times I heard people say that we should get rid of our singer...


My Salvation


Back in Balance


Enemy Lines


Slavantas
(Jacques said that I outdid myself with this particular solo)

[mal paso]

Ricky D killed it






That's life, in a nutshell


(sorry btw)

(err, not for life, but the bad news about your band)

[TeleTim911]

Blazer, sorry to hear this. But I agree, hang in there, keep practicing and hope you find something new soon!

[Justinvs]

Sorry to hear about your band. Even when it's a relief to see it end, it still bites.

[String Tree]

Blazer
It sucks when a band breaks up.
It is a relationship that comes to an end.

You can't help but feel an emotional hang-over from it.

Keep your head-up, ears open, choose a path and, follow it.

Life is short, play LOUD!

~ String Tree

[Telarkaster]

Sorry to hear about this, but from your other posts maybe this is for the best. I wish you well, I'm sure it won't take you long to form another band.

[Brad Pittiful]

sorry to hear man...onto better things!

[MandyMarie]

Best of luck, friend.

[bendecaster]

Whenever we have a big change in our life, it causes stress, which could be a bad thing. Take care of yourself. I know you said you are "calm, relieved", but it still is a big change. I hope things work out for you. Good luck.

[Colo Springs E]

On to bigger and better, Blazer!

[oceanman2]

Good luck moving on, man. Losing a band is hard, but it sounds like you have options!

[motwang]

As I said earlier, this singer is off key as much as he is on, plus he thinks drinking water and waving his hair around is as important as the instrumentals, maybe more so? Much better off with out him. Get some of the guys to jam and regroup. Someone else will have to agree, you are much better off now. Rest but keep playin somewhere, even if its just at home.

[Blazer]

Today was the final time I closed the door of the rehearsal room behind me. A weird feeling, almost six years (December 2006) since meeting Pascal Bastings and Jos Nievelstein to start a band in the vein of Iron Maiden has led to this.

Five years of constant line up changes of that band before we finally had a line up that worked, five years of writing songs and working our tails off to get anywhere.

So where did it all go wrong? Looking back now I can honestly say that it was our cockiness, right from the get-go Pascal presented us as the next big thing, before we even played one show. And the rest of the guys going along with it, he turned down several opportunities to play because of it being too small. We wanted to skip the fact that every beginning band has to play every toilet in order to hone their craft, you can't just start on a big stage, you have to earn your stripes.

It's also been five years of conflicts of which the incident of our then bass player peeing in my car was the most infamous. And more recently of clashes with out singer who's increasingly erratic behavior was dragging everybody down.

But also five years of Rock N Roll, we had a ball playing those festivals in Belgium and Germany, opening for Saxon and we had plenty of Spinal Tap moments, like the time we played a show in Belgium where me and our other guitarist has taped over the controls of our bass player's amp so he couldn't change the settings and that said bass player smashing the windows of the car belonging to the organizer of that thing after we told him that he had enough to drink and that nobody should give him anymore beers..

Five years but it seems like yesterday, I'm going to miss it.