UK metallic hardcore favourites Ithaca have announced their breakup.
The five-piece, formed in 2013, announced their split via social media today (October 30). They’ll release one last song at an undisclosed date and play one final show, The Cremation Party, at London’s O2 Academy Islington on February 8. Tickets go on sale on November 1 at 10am local time.
In their statement, Ithaca say they’re splitting as they can no longer balance their personal lives with being in a band.
“There’s been no falling out or creative differences, in fact we’re closer than ever,” they write. “We’re just no longer able to balance our life responsibilities with giving you the standard of art that you deserve, and feel like we’ve fulfilled more than our wildest dreams could have imagined in terms of where this band would take us. Now, we’re ready to put it to rest.”
The band add: “We don’t quite have the words yet to describe what this band and all of your support has meant to us; that’ll come over time.”
Ithaca – singer Djamila Azzouz, guitarists Sam Chetan-Welsh and Will Sweet, bassist Dom Moss and drummer James Lewis – released debut album The Language Of Injury to positive reviews in 2019. Its followup, They Fear Us, came out via Hassle Records in 2022 and was critically acclaimed. Metal Hammer awarded it a nine out of 10 and called it “absolutely essential listening” while The Guardian deemed it “the metal album of the year”.
During their 12-year run, Ithaca shared stages with Employed To Serve, Shai Hulud, Bleeding Through, Svalbard, Big Thief and others. They also performed at such festivals as Arctangent and 2000 Trees. A planned Download set this year was cancelled as the band protested the sponsorship of Barclaycard, who have offered financial services to those providing weapons to Israel.
