Drummer Ted Parsons (PRONG, SWANS, GODFLESH, JESU) — who has spent the past few days in a Swiss studio collaborating with French recording artists TREPONEM PAL on their new release — has released the following statement regarding legendary bassist Paul Raven's (MINISTRY, KILLING JOKE) passing:

"It deeply saddens me to tell you that legendary bass player and friend Paul Raven died yesterday morning of a heart failure in Geneva, Switzerland at around 6:00 a.m.

"Paul and myself were invited to play on the new TREPONEM PAL album in Geneva for a week. After a long day of recording, the band went out for drinks to celebrate Paul's arrival and reminisce. We then went back to the house we were staying and I went to bed the other guys stayed up.

"I found Raven asleep in a chair the next morning in the living room. I thought nothing of it as Raven would sleep like this on the tour bus in the front lounge all the time. Then I looked closer at him and he looked very gray. I checked his pulse and there was none. I yelled for the other guys in the band. We immediately did some CPR and called for an ambulance. Medics arrived quickly but after an hour of trying to get his heart beat back they could not save him. They said he died in his sleep probably around 6 a.m. It was then 9:30 a.m.

"Marco and myself have been contacting his family all day yesterday. I'm assuming a funeral service will be held in Wolverhampton, UK where his family live and his birthplace.

"We made a lot of great music together.

"Words can't describe how I feel right now. I'm devastated.

"He will be missed by many.

"He was the king of the one-liners.

"Please send Raven and his family love and light."

Born in Wolverhampton, UK on January 16, 1961, Paul Vincent Raven established himself with his work in the seminal post-punk/industrial act KILLING JOKE after he replaced the band's original bassist in 1982, recording and touring with the group throughout its most commercially successful period, performing on "Fire Dances", "Night Time" and "Brighter than a Thousand Suns". Throughout his extensive career, Raven participated in other collaborations, including PRONG, MURDER, INC., PIGFACE and GODFLESH. Most recently, Raven was nominated for a 2006 Grammy for "Best Metal Performance" for his work with MINISTRY's Al Jourgensen, with whom he had begun collaborating in late 2005 on the MINISTRY release "Rio Grande Blood". After a 2006 world tour with the group, Raven helped Jourgensen and PRONG's Tommy Victor pen the latest MINISTRY CD, "The Last Sucker", which is also the band's final studio release.

PRONG interview from "Rude Awakening" CD-ROM (Tommy Victor, Ted Parsons, Paul Raven):