According to an official press release from These Arms Are Snakes’ record label Suicide Squeeze, the Seattle based four-piece post-metallers have broken up:

“It’s with a heavy heart we tell you that These Arms Are Snakes is no more. It’s been a great run and we’d like to send out a very hearty “Thank You” to everyone that we’ve worked with or anyone that we’ve toured with; anyone that lent us a floor, towed our van and/or trailer, lent a van, given us a listen, downloaded our records prior to their coming out, bought our shit, or asked us where our band name came from; everyone who cooked us food, made habanero-infused tequila, had a safety meeting with us, let Steve gyrate all over you, had to live with any of us, made us pay shitloads of money to get off your punk label, got us into LOST, found Steve drunkenly wandering the streets of Tokyo alone, played Madlibs in the van (plural nouns), lost money promoting one of our shows, took Chris to the hospital, put up with our drunken sorry asses, got into a fight with us, etc. etc.”

This band could not have been possible without all of you. We sincerely thank you.

Much love,

TAAS 2002 – 2009

Well, umm… this sucks. I’ve never been a huge fan of any one These Arms are Snakes record, but in a live setting the band absolutely smokes. Like, makes other bands look like absolute amateurs they are [were] so fucking good. These Arms Are Snakes ripping first-night performance was a highlight of my 2009 SXSW festival, and I had the privilege of seeing them again this Fall in a Bushwick loft.

The band hasn’t given any reasons for their breakup, but I suppose it’s some combination of the usual suspects… creative differences, dudes wanting to move on and do other things, dudes getting tired of the touring lifestyle, dudes wanting to settle down, dudes getting tired of smelling each others’ farts, dudes hating each other’s guts… etc. In the immediate future I suppose this means bassist Brian Cook will have more time to devote to Russian Circles who seem to be doing quite well for themselves lately (nearly packed NYC’s Bowery Ballroom last month). I’m not aware if guitarist Ryan Frederiksen is involved with other projects, but the dude can play. And as for snake-like frontman Steve Snere and uber-finesse drummer Chris Common… lord oh lord would it be an incredible waste of talent if those dudes didn’t join other bands.

So why the fuck were they called These Arms Are Snakes anyway? R.I.P.

-VN