Allen said the following about Portnoy's departure, "We knew about it before he made it public. We want to keep working and we don't want to wait around for Mike to have the time, and he doesn't know when he will have the time again.

"He was asked to be in the band by myself, me and Mike Orlando had already written all the material and it was completely finished before Mike got in the band. It's a bummer, but he's got his side projects and the Mob's got to go on"

As for a replacement for Portnoy, he had the following to say, "We don't have a new drummer in mind, but we are writing new material right now and we're looking to record later this year. Mike was really cool and suggested some people to replace him and we're looking at all the options."