Divine Heresy fires singer

Divine Heresy (Century Media Records) has fired vocalist Tommy Cummings, reports the Headbangers Ball Blog. According to the blog, "The move came after Cummings flew into a rage during a show on April 26th in Poughkeepsie, New York when the other players wouldn't let him end the set early." Headbangers Ball Blog provided the following account, including quotes from Divine Heresy guitarist and founding member Dino Cazares: "'He gave us 10 different reasons why we should stop — 'My microphone doesn't work, I got diarrhea, the monitors are f–ked up' — whatever he could think of. We decided that's not fair to the fans. We wanted to give them a full show.' "In part, the other members of Divine Heresy decided to finish the gig because they didn't think Cummings was being honest about why he wanted to cut the set short. 'We felt that he wanted to end the show early to go hang out at the New England Metal Fest, which we were supposed to be performing at the next day,' Cazares said. "But when Divine Heresy blasted into the next song, Cummings became unglued. He tried to pry the drumsticks from Tim Yeung's hands, then he shoved Cazares, knocking him down. 'The venue has a weird step onstage, and I hit the step and fell after he pushed me,' Cazares said. 'He just caught me off balance. It was extremely unprofessional, and, in my head I just knew it was over with him.' "The Poughkeepsie incident was the final straw in a relationship that had grown increasingly strained over time. From the start, Cummings' hardcore and hip-hop background clashed with the rest of the band's brutal death metal orientation, and as the lead singer, he seemed to see himself as the leader of the group even though the band was formed by Cazares. 'He's a big, intimidating guy and he knows how to use that to his advantage,' the guitarist explained. 'We didn't agree on a lot of things and we thought it was better that he left.'" The band is currently auditioning replacements. Additional details regarding Cummings' departure can be found here.