Ukrainian singer Denis Stoff (Drag Me Out, ex-Asking Alexandria) has confirmed that he is still alive following rumors that suggested he was killed during the Russian invasion of his homeland. He issued the following statement on his Instagram story:

"I'm still in a safe place and I'm fine today. Whoever faked my Wikipedia deserve what they deserve… Let's pray together that this war ends soon. Love ya guys. ❤️"

[via Blabbermouth]

Drag Me Out, the band featuring former Asking Alexandria frontman Denis Stoff, have been accused of stealing the artwork that they used for their latest single "The Watch Of The Buried." The allegations were made after artist Maxime Taccardi noticed that the cover art for the single is nearly identical to a 2014 piece he created called "Ebola."

Taccardi said the following:

"Total rip off of my art, not only they didn't ask my permission to copy my painting, they did not even mention me as the source of inspiration. Scroll to see my painting… People are disrespectful @dragmeoutband singer is @denisstoff That shit pisses me off"

Drummer Chris Nokia later responded to Taccardi's wife with the following:

"Our singer [Stoff] presented it to us as it was something he created. And we believed him. I'm glad you messaged me about this, it's really bad. To be 100% honest, me, the bassist and guitarist had no idea about it, we are mostly just going with the flow of what our singer is saying, so I'm not arguing with you at all. I'm totally your friend and support you since this is a copyright infringement."

Stoff also offered his own explanation:

"I need to clear this up for those who've been commenting about our single artwork – we bought it from the freelance artist and we had no idea about the similarities with a different artist. I reached out to the guy directly and I promise, we will figure it out. That's what he should've been doing in the first place instead of sending all of you to spam my comment section. That's called maturity."

The band added:

"We reached out to the original artist to figure this all out but he's not responding. We will keep you updated."

However, Taccardi took issue with those comments:

"So now, this band @dragmeoutband is trying to make up with their bulshit telling that I started the drama. But look right now they say it was a freelance artist who did the art but earlier they told my wife it was their singer who told them he did it. Just liés, I did not send anyone riot on their page, people just backed me up and now they're trying to blame me and telling me I lack maturity. What the fuck? Also second Pic they say they sent me a message, they didn't. Fuck that"

The group also claimed to have offered Taccardi money:

"Update: we spoke to the artist, apologized for this situation and offered him $$$. Just want to clarify this one more time – we @dragmeoutband had no idea this art was inspired by his work since we picked up this artwork from an outsource graphic designer.

Taccardi shared that message and added:

"After trying to say I'm immature, how about you don't insult my wife. You guys lie, I got screenshots of your drummer saying your singer did the art, now it is a mysterious freelance artist with no name of course. They said they bought it from that freelance guy but to me they say now it was gifted to them.. They can't even come up with their lies straight. Oh and yes, the singer after telling me that I should not have sent people (which I didn't) to their page offered me 250bucks, fucking charity. How disrespectful can they be? Right? and now their stupid fans going off on me, fuck this"

[via The PRP]

Drag Me Out, the new band featuring Denis Stoff (ex-Asking Alexandria, etc.), have surprise released their debut album "Pressure." You can find that in various digital outlets and stream every song on Sumerian Records' YouTube channel. Physical copies will be released at a later date.

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It would be a mistake for me not to say this record was the most opened and true reflection of what I lived through the past years of my life. It all was honest and I want you to feel it. There's a part of me that always wants to leave you guessing on what did you just felt when you listened to that sound/melody/lyric. I took a red pill and followed the rabbit in this life and you know, I fucking love it. You don't even understand what's going on in my head anymore but I still want you to love me. And the funniest part is that you're actually there, waiting for me through the tears and mud. I can't thank you enough for that. With that being said, I want this record to make you feel free, fresh, new, a little bit spoiled, ready for life and every challenge it's gonna take you through. Please enjoy, I finally took this "Pressure" off my chest. Buy it on iTunes right now, we will release physical copies later. Comment your favorite song below. Much love. 🐝💿

A post shared by STOFF 💔 (@denisstoff) on

Drag Me Out, the new band featuring Denis Stoff (ex-Asking Alexandria), have premiered a new video for their new song "I'm Sorry." Stoff said the following:

"I just want to say thank you so much to my fans for staying with me through some of the toughest times of my life. Wherever I go they would follow me til the end and that's what I cherish the most. They understand me and where I'm coming from when the change is coming which lets me stay comfortable with myself and my music. With that being said I would love to present the new chapter of my life and my career – Drag Me Out.

Please, enjoy the new sound. It's made for you."

Asking Alexandria's Danny Worsnop was recently interviewed on the Lead Singer Syndrome podcast and he opened up a bit about Denis Stoff, who replaced him in the group until his recent return. According to Worsnop, Stoff was actually lip syncing his parts during the band's live shows. You can hear him discuss that below:

Worsnop said the following:

"He was just keepin' my seat warm. Honestly I don't know the kid so I have no opinion of him as a person. When people start telling me stories, my response is like… I don't wanna know. I met the kid one time on a tour in Russia and he got a picture with me outside of a hotel. That's my extent of my knowledge of him."

He also added:

"The only weird thing was, and this was like, it was like almost illegal. He was lip syncing over my stuff for a minute. That obviously did not rub me or my lawyers the right way."

"They jumped on it before I did. They were like 'hey just so you know we sent him a cease and desist because he's lip syncing over your stuff'. I hadn't seen them or heard them with him so I was just like yeah make sure he's not using my stuff."

In a live chat on Facebook, Ben Bruce confirmed Danny Worsnop's return to Asking Alexandria. The band decided to reunite with Worsnop after Denis Stoff, who sang on the band's recent album "The Black," stopped contacting them.

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Bruce said the following [transcribed by The PRP]:

"Basically, to a cut a long story short, we didn't kick Denis out of the band. He just stopped talking to us. As most you know the Asking boys went out around the UK and Europe, doing a bunch of headline shows and a bunch of festival appearances—I had to miss that tour due the birth of my daughter—which was really upsetting. But obviously I kept in touch with the guys, every single we day we kept in touch… Everything was great, everything was fine. So that was that.

Denis went back to the Ukraine, we all came back to the states, we all had a nice little break. It got to the time where we started trying to organize a video shoot for "Send Me Home", we're like 'Denis needs to fly back to the states, we're going to do a video for "Send Me Home", start work on new songs, new music '. Which we did do, we started writing and we recorded some demos and stuff. Everything seemed fine and then he just stopped responding. I texted him a bunch, loads of emails back and forth, no response whatsoever.

We were quite confused, like 'what the hell is going on?' sort of thing, maybe he's having a break, maybe he's tired, we don't know. And I received a message from him, something along the lines of 'Asking Alexandria does not exist unless I get what's owed to me.' So I was confused, like what's owed to him? I don't really understand. Long story short, we were left in a bit of a pickle, like a bit of a situation, we had to decide. Do we end Asking Alexandria, this band that we've worked so hard for for the last decade, this thing that we love more than anything. Do we just throw it away, do we end it?

We've got these tours coming up, we've got the Sumerian '10 Years In The Black Tour', we've got this Europe run that we're booked for that Denis is supposed to be on, but we can't get ahold of him, don't know if he's coming, don't know if he's not coming. And we just sat down as a band and we were like 'why the hell are we doing this? Why are we doing this?' And the reason we're doing this, the reason we started this band to begin with is because we love music.

We were five best friends who loved being around each other. We all loved the same music, we loved playing music together and that's why we started this band and that's why were continuing this band. We're a family, we always have been since day one."

"Obviously over the last sort of few months we've rekindled our relationship with Danny and what happened in the past sucked and it hurt us, obviously I said things and Danny has said things—that happens. It was in the past and it was shit. But at the end of the day, we've been best friends for a decade and that's why this is the move that's right for us. Right for us as a band, right for us as people and friends and right us for Asking Alexandria, this is full circle, this is right back where we started and why we started the band."

"We were just as blindsided as you guys, we woke up one day… We were just like 'what the fuck? how is this happening to us again? Like what is it, why does this keep happening?' So we made the choice, do we cancel the tour, do we break up? No, we don't, we fight just like we always have done. We carry on doing this tour, we come out because we love doing it and we love playing for you guys."

"When Denis first joined the band a year, year and a half ago, people within the music industry and fans alike, they all told us these different things about Denis' past, and we got many warnings and we said, that's his past forgive and forget, we don't know any of that side of things. So we gave him the benefit of the doubt and you know, there's no smoke without fire and I guess we found that out the hard way.

Do I regret the last year and a half I spent touring the world with Denis? Absolutely not. Do I regret releasing and writing "The Black"? Absolutely not. Do I go back on anything I said? Absolutely not. "The Black" was a very honest and open record and that is I felt at the time, how we all felt at the time. We've moved on, we've moved upwards.

I'm not gonna sit here and talk shit on Denis, he came into this band and he was amazing for us at the time. We had a blast with him, we had the best time ever. As far as we could see everything was going great, obviously it wasn't. There's not really anything we can do about that. We once again have been left in a rather shitty situation and we've picked ourselves up off the floor and we've continued going. Asking Alexandria is back to the way we started with the original fucking members.

The reason that we're all here today is because of the five guys who started this band about a decade ago in Yorkshire together with the same dream, the same goals, the same love and passion and those five guys are back in the room together again and honestly we couldn't be happier. This is Asking Alexandria."

Asking Alexandria have been forced to drop off the Rock USA festival in Oshkosh, WI, due to immigration issues associated with Denis Shaforostov. The band tweeted the following:

Asking Alexandria have premiered a new song titled "Undivided." This is the band's second song to feature new vocalist Denis Shaforostov (ex-Make Me Famous).

Asking Alexandria have premiered a new video for their song "I Won't Give In." This was the band's first single to feature new vocalist Denis Shaforostov (ex-Make Me Famous).

Conquer Divide have premiered a new song titled "Sink Your Teeth Into This." This song features guest vocals from Denis Shaforostov (Asking Alexandria), and it will appear on their self-titled debut, which will be released on July 24.