Darkness need a new drummer.

The new Drummer in The Darkness Emily Dolan Davies has quit the band, after only joining earlier this year. Emily made her live debut on 6 March but is already departing to pursue “new projects”. The group said in a statement: “We part ways with fond farewells. Emily played a huge part in the recording of our new album Last Of Our Kind and makes a final appearance in the video for our single Open Fire, which is coming to a screen near you.”

The drummer had “revitalised” The Darkness, according to singer Justin Hawkins. “She’s a hard hitter,” he previously told Classic Rock. Speaking about The Darkness’s split with founding member Ed Graham in 2014, Hawkins said: “Ed has had some well-publicised health problems in the past. And for one reason or another, he wasn’t capable of doing his job anymore. We’re still friends with Ed but now that we have Emily in the band, the worry is gone.”

It is not yet certain what they will do to replace Emily. The Darkness’s fourth album, Last Of Our Kind, will be released on 1 June. The follow-up to 2012’s Hot Cakes was recorded at Leeders Farm Studio in Spooner Row, Norfolk, owned by The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins.

“The new album is brutal,” Justin Hawkins said. “It’s definitely stripped back, with the exception of some mandolins. “But when you’re doing medieval rock, you should have a mandolin on it…it’s medieval rock, but it still sounds like The Darkness.”