According to Headbanger's Blog, West has had problems with alcohol abuse over the years and even quit OBITUARY for a time in August 2005 because he was unable to remain sober enough to play shows. OBITUARY originally hoped West would sober up enough to work on the band's latest CD, "Xecutioner's Return", but the guitarist couldn't pull it off, and on May 16, 2007 he was arrested and imprisoned after his fifth DUI offense.

"If you've followed OBITUARY's history, it really shouldn't be any surprise about West's absence," OBITUARY frontman John Tardy said in a 2007 interview with The Metal Forge. "If you look all the way back to 'Cause Of Death', you could see he had certain issues at the time. If I had to sum up the two years since we released 'Frozen In Time', I would say that they've been a little challenging. His drinking was getting way out of hand. It was affecting us all personally, and affecting our shows with his poor performance onstage. It wasn't fun to be around him at times. It was bad. - more on this story

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