(Metal Underground) The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Brian Benoit has posted a lengthy statement on the band's MySpace page explaining the circumstances that have forced him to take a leave of absence from the group. An excerpt from his statement follows: "April 28, 2005… Memphis, Tennessee... the Hi Tone. This is the show that will go down in infamy as far as my future with the band, my ability as a guitarist, and the use of my left hand in day-to-day life for years to come...maybe forever. Everything was a-okay through the halfway point of the set...full throttle, balls to the wall, all systems go. A song or two later however, my neck was giving me a sensation like no other I had ever experienced with all the sore neck issues that come with the trade. I didn't find out until we came home a couple of weeks later (missing all but two of the the shows on the rest of the tour) that I had ruptured a disc in my lower neck, and this was only the tip of the iceberg.
"We were only about a week into the U.S. tour that included the show above, and as always a good number of the band/crew were sick with the typical 'colds' from traveling to different climates and working on little rest. Like clockwork, my cold progressed to bronchitis, which eventually led to pneumonia, and again I didn't realize the severity until we finally came home from the tour.
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