"Yes, you read right, Melissa, as well as her boyfriend Wolfgang are not in Visions of Atlantis anymore. We were as much shocked about that as you must be, but it is the sad truth. Some people just don't know what the word commitment means...

We (the remaining rest of VoA) want to appologize to all fans out there who believed in us and supported us, we hope you stay loyal with VoA. Of course we are trying to find a substitute for Melissa, we already have one for Wolfgang (to be announced soon). The show must go on...

At this point we do not know what happens regarding the Kamelot tour... It is surely not as easy as Melissa states below.

Well, please read their official blahblah about dropping out below.

Melissa: "This is the hardest decision I have ever had to make because its not something I necessarily want to do, but it is something I feel I have to do. I have decided to leave Visions of Atlantis. There are a few reasons why, but primarily it has to do with where my priorities are at the present time. This doesn't mean that I will stop making metal, but my preferences, needs, desires have shifted now. And honestly, I don't want to write music with a group that Wolfgang isn't a part of.

I want to also apologize for those who were excited for the Kamelot tour. But it sounds like the guys are going to find another singer to fill the slot. I feel most bad about this because I was looking forward to meeting so many of you and seeing our friends/fans again.

I want to thank everyone for supporting VoA over the last few years and thank the guys for everything! It's been a blast! To all the friends/fans, it has been great getting to know you. Thanks for everything!!"

Wolfgang: "After months of thinking about the pros and cons, I finally have decided to leave VoA. I wanna express that I leave VoA without any hard feelings or any fights involved, it's a personal decision, not really dealing with the relation to anybody else in the group. I know I owe VoA a lot, it has given me great tours, a great possibility, perfect support from Napalm, I saw places I'd never seen in my life and I've played crowds bigger than any crowd I'll ever play again. And I've met a ton of great people, and had a blast drinking with the guys ;)

I especially feel bad for Mario, who was already eager to start the songwriting for the next album, and has been my main partner for what turned out to be my songs on Trinity. Needless to mention all the improvements he brought for the Harbi tracks.

I don't feel creative in a VoA context any more. All the stuff I've written since Trinity doesn't fit to VoA at all, as naturally, I cannot go less heavy than let's say 'Wing Shaped Heart' and I've found myself happier with heavier music. And I know that there's a certain limit to where you can push VoA music without being too far off from what was created by the previous line-ups. I analyzed 'Cast Away' pretty well, and tried to discover the core of the music, without the production and arrangements & add my own style to forge my Trinity songs, which turned out well, and I'm still happy with them. But on the other hand, I cannot stand behind certain other parts of the VoA-Legacy or present with all I got, and with the labelling it brought with it. I guess even if we had written a Deathmetal-album, everybody still would label VoA a 'version II' of some Finnish band I highly dislike, just because of the music composed on the first album and the promotion done on the second one. Trinity has no influence except our own, and certainly is no 'version II' of something, but too many people are either deaf or still associate the current line-up with previous VoA recordings automatically, therefore I think that VoA might never get the attention/credibility it earned with great parts of Trinity.

So yeah, good luck to the guys & thanks to everybody cool I've met or the VoA-fans around the globe I've met."

Visions Of Atlantis now seeking replacement for Melissa.
"If you feel like having the talent, commitment and dedication for joining Visions Of Atlantis...
Please send a demo of your vocal abilities & 2-3 pictures to this email address: thomas@listenup-management.com
We look forward to recieving your submissions and really hope to find a new singer soon!"