Drummer Craig Nunenmacher has left Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society, according a Twitter posting that has since been deleted from Wylde's wife, Barbaranne Wylde. Black Label Society have promised to release a statement soon on the departure of 'Louisiana Lightning,' who originally pounded the kit for Crowbar and joined the band in 2000. According to BLS' Web site, "Craig has proven himself to be a irreplaceable member of the Black Label family."

According to Barbaranne's tweet, "[Zakk] was going to share, but I guess I will ... Craig has quit the band and we will have a new drummer very soon." No explanation for Nunenmacher's departure has been offered yet.

The announcement comes just before Black Label Society prepare to enter Wylde's newly-completed mountaintop recording studio, to record the band's next "slab of uncompromising, unfiltered, and unrestrained rock and roll," which should surface this summer.

Wylde has said he's rearing to get back in the studio after blood clots in his legs sidelined him with a recent hospital stay. "With the home studio I have this flexibility when inspiration hits to lay down new ideas at anytime -- day or night -- for re-recording later," he enthuses. "This freshness should prove inspiring -- and some of these first takes might even make it on the album." Nunenmacher has contributed to the writing of the new material.

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