Death-metal act Vitriol recently made headlines when all the band members except frontman Kyle Rasmussen quit mid-tour and abandoned the singer at a gas station in Vermont. While the story has come across as somewhat humorous, Rasmussen has now told his side of the story, painting a dark and violent picture of the events that led up to the incident.
As previously reported, Vitriol guitarist Keith Merrow took to social media to let fans know that he, drummer Andy Vincenzetti, and bassist Brett Leier abandoned Rasmussen at a gas station after dealing with his “cowardly and weak outbursts of misplaced anger.”
In a lengthy video post, Rasmussen put the onus on the other band members, saying he and the rest of the band all got high on cocaine in New York on their way up to Canada, and that the other members freaked out before crossing the border because they had weed in the RV.
Related Video
“It was important to me to see how Keith, Brett, and Andy decided to handle this in the following day,” said Rasmussen, as transcribed by Lambgoat. “Unfortunately, they chose to double down, and they are sharing information with people I care about that simply is just not true. Some of it’s an exaggeration, some of it’s outright fallacious.”
Rasmussen went on to say that Merrow threatened physical violence against him, and even pushed the singer’s girlfriend aside during the dispute, and that police were called to the scene.
“From the outside, if I saw this, I would have to assume that this was just a pressure cooker of animosity that exploded into this extreme It was an extreme action,” continued Rasmussen. “It was a drugged-out temper tantrum. That’s the truth. Was I the catalyst for it? Was my rage? Was the intensity of my rage the match? Of course. And that’s on me. But I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve been belittled on tour. I’ve been yelled at. I’ve had shit thrown at me. I’ve had people swing on me. I’ve had people name call me. I don’t even name call. I just am brutal with what I think is the truth. It’s not always… It’s rarely the right thing to do. But the behavior that followed freed me from any sense of loss.”
Radmussen went on to say that a state trooper helped him, his girlfriend, and their dog find a hotel.. He has since launched a GoFundMe to help pay his way back to his home in Portland, Oregon, clarifying that they were left stranded at a gas station in upstate New York, not Vermont. So far, the GoFundMe has raised nearly $11,000 as of this posting, allowing them to buy a used car to drive back to Oregon.
As for what’s next, Rasmussen said, “The most important thing in my life is this message that I’m communicating with Vitriol, and I’m always going to find a way to do that. I’ve always been a fighter. I’ve always said, I’m just going to keep going until I find the right guys. At this point, I never I’ve never anticipated something that’s disastrous, this catastrophic, losing all three members at the same time is something that is very difficult to bounce back from. I don’t know for sure what’s happening, but I have to assume that Vitriol is going to take a nice break for the foreseeable future until I figure out what the next move is.”
Merrow, meanwhile, has since responded, “Me, Brett and Andy left Vitriol because Kyle sucks. That’s it. It doesn’t require an absolutely psychotic 2 part video series to explain. He irrationally screamed at the whole crew at the top of his lungs on multiple occasions. We simply won’t tolerate it, just like all the other 19 people who left this failed band.”
Watch Kyle Rasmussen’s full video breakdown of the events below.