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Chicago, IL - The surviving members of platinum selling rock band Hawthorne Heights have agreed to drop, in its entirety, their August 2006 lawsuit against Victory Records entitled Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger, Casey Calvert, Micah Carli, Matt Ridenour, JT Woodruff, p/k/a “Hawthorne Heights” v. Victory Records, Inc., et al, and Victory Records, Inc. v. Eron Bucciarelli-Tieger, et al. (No. 06 C 4258) filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Victory Records will release Hawthorne Heights’ third studio album titled Fragile Future on August 5, 2008. Fragile Future follows two highly successful albums with Victory Records. The Silence in Black and White (2004), peaked at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 reaching platinum status. The band followed up in 2006 with If Only You Were Lonely which debuted at #3 on the Billboard Chart and was certified Gold shortly thereafter.

Victory Records Owner Tony Brummel commented, “Everyone at Victory is ecstatic about the forthcoming album from Hawthorne Heights. It is by far their best material to date. When Victory and Hawthorne started our relationship in 2003 it was always about beating the odds. Our country has just seen and experienced historic change with the Democratic nomination of Barack Obama. Everything happens for a reason and there is tremendous positivity in the air. We have lived in a reality of petty disputes, unresolved misunderstandings, unhealthy friction and negative sensationalism for too long. Forgiveness and the ability to reunite are powerful gifts. They create a spirit. Couple that spirit with great music and you have something that is extraordinary and transcendental. You cannot change the past but you can affect the future. There is a bigger lesson and story here than just releasing a new album. Victory, and I know Hawthorne Heights, are thankful to be a part of that.”

Hawthorne Heights‘ Drummer Eron Bucciarelli reflects, “We now regret having begun the lawsuit we filed in 2006. We should not have listened to those, who, for whatever reasons, were then advising us to pursue this strategy. We are sorry for having put Victory Records and Tony Brummel through this ordeal, and regret any negative publicity that may have resulted. Many false, hurtful and incorrect statements were made, especially on the Internet, none of which were true. Tony Brummel and Victory gave us our start, and did an unprecedented job with our first two albums. We hope they can repeat that success with our third studio album. Unfortunately, we cannot change the past, but we’re now taking steps to heal the wounds and start fresh.” Singer JT Woodruff offered, “We are so excited to release our third album. It feels absolutely amazing to finally have a release date in sight. Over the past year or so we have written a lot of songs, thrown away a lot of songs, and over the last month wrote a lot more songs. This last batch totally sums up where we are as a band, what we have been through and most importantly…where we want to be. Through all of the smoke and fire, we feel these songs are the best material we have ever released”.

Well at least the record had a badass producer. Not sure if it’s public knowledge or not, but let’s just say as far as Chico goes, he’s Number One.

Autopsy results for Hawthorne Heights guitarist Casey Calvert, who was found dead on the band’s tour bus last month, were released today, with cause of death being attributed to “acute combined effects of opiate, citalopram and clonazepam intoxication.”

The autopsy listed Calvert’s death as accidental, though it added that it was brought on due to “substance abuse.” Both citalopram (also known by the brand name Celexa) and clonazepam (also known by the brand names Klonopin and Rivotril) are prescription drugs, the former an antidepressant and the latter used to treat seizure disorders and panic attack.

Klonopin and Celexa are definitely a powerful combination, but are still fairly routine in the treatment of anxiety/depression/existential angst/etc. The X-factor in the equation is of course the as-of-yet unnamed “opiate” which could be anything from OxyContin to Vicodin to Heroin, but the moral of the story is that Casey Calvert died from depression, or at least the drugs he used to try to treat it. Thus is makes it all the more fitting that the folks over at To Write Love On Her Arms, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide, are currently offering a Casey Calvert Memorial Shirt, with 100% of proceeds going towards Casey’s family. RIP CASEY CALVERT

Photo by Zack Arias / Used Film

UPDATE: Hawthorne Heights bassist Eron Bucciarelli has just released a statement to Absolutepunk.net about today’s autopsy results:

From the time of the incident we suspected a possible drug interaction as the cause. Casey wrestled with depression for as long as we knew him. He saw numerous doctors and took an ever-changing array of medicines to get better. To our knowledge, Casey never knowingly took more than that which was prescribed. It’s a possibility that he mistakenly took too many of one medicine while under the affects of another. We shouldn’t even have to say this, but people’s minds will wander if we don’t…Casey never took anything illegal and certainly didn’t intentionally abuse anything that was prescribed to him.

What toxicology reports don’t show is that prior to us leaving for tour, Casey had a root canal, and was POSSIBLY prescribed some sort of opiate based painkiller (ie, Vicodin, Oxycotin, etc). We’re not certain of this at the moment and this report simply raises more questions than it really answers. If the opiate in his system was given to him due to his dental procedure, its safe to say there was a breakdown in either his doctors communications with one another in regards to Casey’s meds and/or the pharmaceutical databases should have red flagged a potentially dangerous drug combination. We stick by our initial statement. Casey was not involved in anything illegal and we don’t want his memory to be tarnished by this report. Please be respectful as we deal with this news.

Sincerely,
Eron