Will Haven have announced that former Red Tape frontman Jeff Jarworski is to replace founder member Grady Avenell as full time vocalist.

In a letter to fans, posted on Will Haven’s MySpace blog, the band explained that, in order to support his family financially Avenell has been forced to take a job that will limit the time he can give to them. They stress, however, that he remains a member of the band and will appear on some songs on their new album, if possible.

Unfortunately, they go on to say, when many of the promoters for their upcoming UK tour discovered that Grady would not be playing, they cancelled the bookings. Because of this, the band have cancelled the entire tour. They will, however, still play the previously announced dates supporting Deftones.

Guitarist Jeff Irwin told us, “It was a very tough decision for Grady to make but of course, family comes first and we totally respect his decision. He is still a part of the band as far as helping write material for the new record, he just isn’t able to tour with us. We want to promote this record as much as we can which means a lot of touring, so we had to make the tough decision of moving forward with a new vocalist.”

The new inductee, Jeff Jaworski, is a long term influence and friend of the band (the subject of the song Jaworski on the band’s 1999 album, WHVN). On his new bandmate, Irwin said, “We are very excited to have Jeff in the band. He is an amazing frontman, with an equally amazing voice and is one of our closest friends. He has added so much to Will Haven in the short time he has been with us.”

Jaworski added, “Years back I got to fill-in for Mike on a two week tour, and became very intimate with the Will Haven sound. Grady is the man, and it’s too bad he had to bow out of this, especially when the band is writing some of their best music ever!”

Those unable to catch the upcoming tour dates will get their first taste of Will Haven’s new line up on their upcoming album, entitled Heirophant, which is expected to be released this summer on Beiler Bros. Records. The album is being produced by Chino Moreno (Deftones) and Shaun Lopez (Far, The Revolution Smile).

“We are taking this as a new era of Will Haven and we are very excited about it,” says Irwin. “We are ready to take over the world!”