17) Off!
Photo Credit: Gary Leonard
Status: Disbanded
First Studio Album: Off! (2012)
Last Studio Album: Free LSD (2022)
Years Active: 2009–2024
Reason: Sometimes bands announce their breakup without giving a reason, and that’s the case for hardcore punk band Off! They more or less quietly called it a career with farewell shows in July 2024, tied to their 2022 album Free LSD and its accompanying feature film, which screened in theaters that summer.
18) Otep
Status: Retired
First Studio Album: Sevas Tra (2002)
Last Studio Album: The God Slayer (2023) // Books by Otep available here.
Years Active: 2000–2024
Reason: Otep Shemaya delivered a shocking update in November 2024, announcing she’s selling her instruments and equipment as she retires from music after 24 years, promising a detailed explanation before the end of 2024. However, that said explanation remains in early 2025.
19) Oxbow
Status: Disbanded (for now?)
First Studio Album: Fuckfest (1989)
Last Studio Album: Love’s Holiday (2023)
Years Active: 1988–2024
Reason: Oxbow decided to call it quits shortly after Eugene Robinson’s departure in July 2024, citing “irreconcilable differences.” Soon after, guitarist Niko Wenner revealed the band broke up due to an unresolved allegation made against him during their European tour, which led to the cancellation of their final shows.
“Niko Wenner, Oxbow update.
An accusation was leveled at me, Niko, during our 2024 European tour.
It’s probably not appropriate for me to give details since the allegation is still unresolved. The alleged incident, said to have occurred in a crowd, involved only myself and the person making the accusation. None of the others in Oxbow were there.
The accusation led to the cancellation of the last 4 shows of our tour, all in France.
I have always greatly enjoyed playing in France and I apologize to anyone who had intentions of seeing us there.
Eugene Robinson has at least for now left the band, as he has already made public in his latest substack article.
As it stands now Oxbow as a band no longer exists. Whether this is a permanent state of affairs remains to be seen.
Niko”
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20) Palm Reader
Status: Disbanded
First Studio Album: Braille (2018)
Last Studio Album: Sleepless (2020)
Years Active: 2011-2024
Reason:
“Dear Friends,
With a heavy heart, we have decided to end our time together as Palm Reader.
We all have very different priorities now, compared to the lives we led when we formed the band in 2011. We collectively feel that ending Palm Reader now rather than simply “going on hiatus” is the right thing for us to do as we grow as people and our lives move forward in different directions.
These last 13 years have been extraordinary, and we can’t thank you enough for being on this journey with us. It has meant more to us than you’ll ever know.
We will be embarking on one last run of UK dates and we hope you can make it out and give us the honour of playing for you one last time.”
21) Porno for Pyros
Status: Disbanded
First Studio Album: Porno For Pyros (1993)
Last Studio Album: Good God’s Urge (1996)
Years Active: 1992–1998 // 20092020 // 2022–2024
Reason: Alt-rock band Porno For Pyros announced their 2024 farewell tour, Horns, Thorns en Halos, along with a new single, “Fingernail,” from their four-track EP. Bassist Martyn LeNoble left the band in late 2023, shortly before the farewell tour was confirmed.
22) Rage Against the Machine
Status: Presumed done
First Studio Album: Rage Against the Machine (1992)
Last Studio Album: Renegades (2000)
Years Active: 1991–2000 // 2007–2011 // 2019–2024
Reason: Towards the beginning of 2024, drummer Brad Wilk more or less said Rage Against the Machine were done. The announcement followed a slew of unfortunate reunion touring halts: rescheduling 2020 plans due to the pandemic, ultimately returning in 2022, which got cut short following vocalist Zack de la Rocha’s Achilles tear injury, inevitably canceling their 2023 tour. While responding to Wilk’s post, guitarist Tom Morello also, more-or-less hinted at the end of RATM during his induction speech from November 2023, stating:
“It is a surprising trajectory for us to be welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 1991, four people in Los Angeles formed a musical group to stand where sound and solidarity intersect. We called ourselves Rage Against the Machine. A band who is as well known for our albums as we are for our fierce opposition to the U.S. war machine, white supremacy and exploitation. A band whose songs drove alternative radio to new heights while right wing media companies tried to purge every song we ever wrote from the airwaves. A band who shut down the NY Stock Exchange for the first time in its history. A band who was targeted by police organizations who attempted to ban us from sold out arenas for raising our voices to free Mumia Abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier and other political prisoners. A band who sued the U.S. State Department for their fascist practice of using our music to torture innocent men in Guantanamo Bay. A band who wrote rebel songs in an abandoned, industrial warehouse in the valley that would later dethrone Simon Cowell’s X Factory pop monopoly to occupy the number one spot on the U.K. charts and have the most downloaded song in U.K. history. A band who funded and organized delegations to stand with Mexican rebel Zapatista communities to expose the Mexican government’s war on indigenous people. A band whose experimentation in fusing punk, rock and hip-hop became a genre of its own. Many thanks to the Hall of Fame for recognizing the music and the mission of Rage Against the Machine. We are grateful to all of the passionate fans, the many talented co-conspirators we’ve worked with and all the activists, organizers, rebels and revolutionaries past, present and future who have inspired our art.”
23) Refused
Status: Calling it quits with a farewell tour in 2025
First Studio Album: This Just Might Be… the Truth (1994)
Last Studio Album: War Music (2019)
Years Active: 1991–1998 // 2012 // 2014– 2025 (calling it quits announced in 2024)
Reason: While Refused will wrap up their career with a series of 2025 shows, including festival appearances like Hellfest, the band announced their decision to call it quits. On September 10, 2024, they shared the following statement:
“We were supposed to do this in June. Roll out our modest farewell run, starting with the Rosendal Garden Party in Stockholm and then doing some light touring before calling it quits end of year. The rehearsals had been magnificent, the vibe was great and two days before the show we played a warm up show at Kulturhuset Femman in Uppsala. There were no pictures or video taken but it was a great show in front of maybe 60 local scenesters. We hung out afterwards, I had a few beers and me and Dennis, still vegan and basically straight edge, traded stupid stories about bands we love. It was a fine evening. Next morning I get a call from Dennis’ wife and a couple of tumultuous hours later it’s confirmed that he’s had a heart attack at the hotel.
We played our first show in February 1992. That same week George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin held a press conference at Camp David to declare that the cold war was over. It was so long ago that I can’t quite remember who we were that wintry saturday when we piled into a car and drove up to Luleå to play 4 Gorilla Biscuits songs, a Shelter song, a AC\DC song and I think 3 original compositions to a crowd of 50-60 blind drunk northeners. We were teenagers who had never really travelled and by the time the band broke up in 1998 we had played over 500 shows all over Europe and the US. To say that the band changed our lives would be a gross understatement, and to say that we got to know each other in those seven years would be as well. A band that tours becomes like a family, especially when you do it in a van, with maps, scrambling to find a squat in Halberstadt where you were supposed to have started playing an hour ago. And family relations can be difficult. So it was with us.
That was partly why we wanted to give it another shot in 2012. We had made a decent splash in the nineties and the break up had been very sudden and chaotic, there were feelings and they were not aired out and the whole thing had been such a shitshow that it was almost inevitable that we’d get back on the horse at some point. We wanted a do-over, to see what was still there, if anything, and what could be made of it.
There’s a Neil Young song called Buffalo Springfield Again where he sings:
“I’d like to see those guys again and give it a shot
Maybe now we can show the world what we got
But I’d just like to play for the fun we had”
And that was basically it. We gave it several shots between 2012 and 2024. We all have different takes on how it went and what the legacy of the reformed band will be, but personally I felt we couldn’t quite agree on what we were supposed to do musically, and we were still struggling with that when the pandemic hit. At that point Kristofer was done, he left the band in August of 2020 and although there was a delayed effect to the death blow, a death blow it was.
So in the beginning of this year we started making plans to have one last big hurrah, to make the end of the band a fun, generous, indulgent affair. And that’s how it felt after the first show, it’s the best we’ve ever sounded and we were really enjoying ourselves, tossing in old songs we haven’t played since the nineties and even a Misfits cover. And then disaster struck. I visited Dennis in the hospital the day after he was admitted and true to form he was not happy about the hospital gown he was forced to wear. Hooked up to all these machines, unshaven with tousled hair, I swear the first thing he said was: (pointing to the gown) “I mean, this is not great”. I guess they don’t let you wear suits or Negative Approach t-shirts in the hospital.
So to the good news: Dennis is doing great. He’s one of the healthiest dudes I know, he’s gotten excellent care and they’ve run all the tests on him which all indicate he’s making a full recovery. Needless to say, he’s itching to get back on tour and he even suggested we should keep the preliminary dates in late fall and winter but we decided to postpone those and start up in the spring. And that’s where we’re at. We’re coming to the US and Canada in March/April 2025 and then we’ll see what we’re gonna do with the rest of that year. All we know is that we want to finish back home in Sweden sometime that winter. Let us know if there are songs you want us to play and we’ll give them a shot. Hope to see you out there.
//David”
24) REO Speedwagon
Status: Ceased Touring
First Studio Album: REO Speedwagon (1971)
Last Studio Album: Not So Silent Night … Christmas with REO Speedwagon (2009)
Years Active: 1967–2024
Reason: In September 2024, REO Speedwagon announced they would cease touring effective January 1, 2025, citing irreconcilable differences between frontman Kevin Cronin and bassist Bruce Hall over Hall’s delayed return following back surgery. Cronin has since scheduled solo tour dates with Styx for 2025.
On September 16, 2024, the band explained their decision to retire:
“To our fans: Bruce has intended to be Back On the Road Again by now. If it were up to just him, he’d be back on tour… but it’s not up to just him. The consensus opinion was that he had not recovered sufficiently to be able to perform at the level the fans have come to expect. Bruce respected that opinion and is grateful that Matt has been around to keep the Wagon rolling through the summer tour. Bruce never had any intention of retiring or walking away from the band, fans, and crew he has loved for almost 50 years.
For Kevin’s part, he too has never had any intention of leaving the band, and the fans and crew mean the world to him, as well.
Due to this complex situation, irreconcilable differences arose between Bruce and Kevin. So, it is with great sadness that we announce REO Speedwagon will cease touring effective January 1, 2025. Neal, Kevin, and Bruce thank their fans for all their years of loyal support and for giving back to the band such wonderful memories that will remain with each of them forever.”
