2014. John Fay announced his departure from Cruachan on 24 June 2016. This marks his second departure from Cruachan, he left Cruachan after the FolkLore album and appeared on albums "Pagan" and "The Morrigan's Call" in a guest musician capacity. On 27 April 2018 Cruachan released their 8th studio album titled Nine Years of Blood, a concept album about the Nine Years' War. It was the third and final album of the so-called "Blood Trilogy". This would be the last album to feature bassist Eric Fletcher who departed the band in September 2018. He was replaced by Rustam Shakirzianov. The year of 2020 had seen the band experience some notable lineup changes. On 14 January, Cruachan announced that bassist Rustam had departed the band following their performance on 70000 Tons of Metal earlier that month. On 10 February 2020, Cruachan announced that former drummer Joe Farrell would be rejoining the band as Rustam's replacement on bass. On 8 July the band announced that drummer Mauro Frison was departing the band but not before he would contribute drums to the band's then upcoming single titled "The Hawthorn". It was announced later the same month on the 28 July that fiddle player John Ryan and Guitarist Kieran Ball would both be departing the band. During this period, Fay recruited Tom Woodlock on drums, Audrey Trainor on violin and Dave Quinn on guitar. In early 2020, Cruachan left Trollzorn Records and signed a multi-album deal with Sweden's largest rock label – Despotz Records. As mentioned, 'The Hawthorn' single was released in 2020 and the ninth studio album The Living and the Dead is slated for a late 2022 release. On October 1st, 2022, Cruachan announced that they had submitted a song for consideration for participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 for the Republic of Ireland. Discography Studio albums Tuatha na Gael (1995) The Middle Kingdom (2000) Folk-Lore (2002) Pagan (2004) The Morrigan's Call (2006) Blood on the Black Robe (2011) Blood for the Blood God (2014) Nine Years of Blood (2018) Singles "Ride On" (2001) "The Hawthorn" (2020) Demos Celtica (Demo, 1994) Promo '97 (Demo, 1997, also included with 2001 bootleg of Tuatha na Gael) Untitled (Demo, 2010, led to new record deal with Candlelight records) Compilations A Celtic Trilogy (2002 boxed set of Tuatha na Gael, The Middle Kingdom and Folk-Lore in picture LP format, limited to 500 copies) A Celtic