Metal band’s post dropping members for affair and ‘disgusting reasons’ blows up

A local New Jersey band has gone viral after its post seeking replacement group members, having been forced to drop two for ‘unforeseen and disgusting reasons’, was served up on millions of users’ feeds.

Reign were communicating with their loyal fanbase of a couple of thousand followers on Instagram this past week, only to see the post unexpectedly reach over two million accounts, all around the world, on the platform.

And the band’s messy drama fascinated many who were unintentionally reading about the fallout, with several comparing it to Fleetwood Mac’s legendary spats and tangled love lives once further details were revealed.

‘Due to unforeseen and disgusting reasons, Ryan and Aubrey are no longer in Reign. Their actions in zero way are a reflection of the morals of the band and everyone who is involved with the band,’ the original post began, written on behalf of remaining members, guitarists CJ and Aiden, and drummer Cork.

‘The things going on behind the scenes that were brought to the light was simply unacceptable and THAT is the honest and genuine truth. Now that we look to the future we are looking for a new vocalist and bassist because this is 100% not the end of this band and we plan to move the same way as before,’ the statement continued, promising further details in a future post.

However, the details that Reign ended up sharing first were about Ryan and Aubrey’s transgressions – and the updates had people locked in.

A further comment from the band, adding ‘context for those who ask/assume the wrong stuff’ then explained: ‘Aubrey cheated on our drummer (Cork) with Ryan months ago and kept the relationship a secret for months.

‘As soon as we found out we decided it was best to kick out both members because at the time (Tuesday) they were still together and were persistent on being a thing. We kicked them because these are supposed to be people that we can trust and the fact they did that to our drummer was enough for us to do what we did (that’s not the only reason).’

The comment then touched on darker territory, alluding to ‘other horrific things that Ryan has done to other women’ coming to light, meaning that the band want ‘absolutely nothing to do with him whatsoever’.

In another comment after questions clearly sprang up in the wake of the last one, Reign’s account added: ‘We feel the need to make it clear. The reason Aubrey is not in the band is because of how the relationship with her and Cork (our drummer) ended (which we didn’t know how until Tuesday).’

‘We have been talking to her (and she fully understands why she’s not in the band) because of course we still care about her and want the best for her,’ the group promised, before clarifying that Aubrey was ‘no longer associated with Ryan after seeing all of the awful things about him that have come to the light’.

‘This is a wild first post to see from a band I’ve never heard of,’ observed Alex Mulder in a comment that attracted over 37,000 likes.

‘Instagram just be dropping me off anywhere,’ quipped @belladonnapaniic, attracting another 33,000 likes while Alicia added: ‘Well damn now I gotta stick around to see the new band even tho I never knew the old one.’

‘We have always stood with and supported @bandreignofficial ever since the very first post of theirs that we came across,’ announced group Allbrook Station. ‘Which is this one.’

‘Well that’s one way to find a new band to listen to,’ chimed in Dominik Knoll.

‘To everyone new here that’s never heard of us. We seriously have no f**king clue why this is blowing up the way it is,’ shared Reign in a later post, before revealing a snapshot of the account’s dashboard and the 1.4 million accounts the post had reached.

It also got them 191,527 profile visits and 3,626 new followers at the time of sharing.

‘A whole lotta drama I never knew I needed, my algorithm is absolutely wild,’ replied content creator account Lucie Woos, before echoing what many others had pointed out: ‘I’m glad something good came out of this for your band and more people know you exist.’ 

‘I’m excited to give you guys a listen once you get the situation figured out!’ responded Alex in the original thread.

Reign, which formed in 2022, is booked to play Chaos & Carnage at nightclub Reverb in Reading, Pennsylvania, and is seemingly determined to press ahead with the gig.

‘Unfortunately we don’t have a bassist and vocalist anymore (CHAOS IS STILL HAPPENING DON’T WORRY) so please hit us up and share this all over,’ the band shared on a post seeking its new members.

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