SPIRALARMS guitarist Craig Locicero (ex-FORBIDDEN, MANMADEGOD) has posted the following message on the group's official web site:

"All right everyone. What's the hold-up? What's the big announcement? Well, here it is. We have a combination of news to unleash, most of it is positive, but we must acknowledge the negative as well.

"Steve Jacobs [ex-FORBIDDEN, MANMADEGOD], our longtime drummer, and the best friend I've ever had in music, has re-injured himself again. This time it's beyond any immediate repair; at least a year of rehab with no guarantee that he can ever play the drums safely again. This news was devastating to all of us because of the chemistry that we all had, and of course our friendship and his passion to see the band through. Steve is our brother and we give him our love and support. He has since moved back to the Midwest to get assisstance from his family that he needs right now.

"We can't emphasize how much we will miss Steve, but this is all part of our journey, we are all survivors!

"That's the kind of news that would break many a band, but there is far to much potential to let that ever happen to us. When I first heard the news from Steve, I was devastated, but my gut instinct told me that another door was about to open. In fact, Steve had a suggestion to call our longtime friend, and source of musical inspiration for all of us, Eric Kretz (ex-STONE TEMPLE PILOTS. I immediately placed the call.

"After explaining to Eric what happened to Steve. I asked him what he thought about coming up to the Bay Area and playing drums with us. Considering that Eric lives in Los Angeles, I knew that it seemed like a crazy idea, but we already had an extremely good working rapport. Now, keep in mind that Eric has already been a creative part of this thing from the begining. Actually, musicaly we go back 10 years. Eric said, he was very excited about our new material and the direction we were taking with Tim as our frontman. In fact, he told me he would love to play drums on our record.

"After that conversation I placed my next call to [vocalist] Tim [Narducci, ex-SYSTEMATIC] and [bassist] James [Walker, ex-MANMADEGOD], explained to them what Eric and I had talked about and that he would produce and play drums on the record at his studio in L.A. (The rest would be open-ended).

"So there you have it, the whole story until now. Eric Kretz is playing in the band. We are writing new material, we took some new band pictures, and we are rehearsing for a surge of shows throughout California.

"As for the future, it looks very bright indeed!!! This is a strange dream-come-true for Tim, James, and myself. We are going to write and record the best fucking album!!!"

Check out new SPIRALARMS band photos (featuring Eric Kretz) at this location.