Sad news coming from Canada as Calgary, Alberta's This Is A Standoff have announced that they have broken up. The band released the following statement via their Facebook:

As you may have noticed, things have been quiet with us since the fall, and apologies are due, as we have been holding onto this bit of news for a few months now.

To make it short and sweet, This Is A Standoff is done. Touring has become harder and harder, and everyone's lives have been heading in different directions for quite some time now.

We set out to be a part-time band, but somehow we ended up playing 322 shows in over 25 countries across 4 continents. Along the way, we were lucky enough [to] make amazing friends in all corners of the world and play along side some of our favourite bands.

It's been an amazing and surreal five years, and we owe endless thank you's to every single one of you that helped us out along the way by checking out a record, attending or promoting a show, letting us crash on your floor, giving us food, or simply taking five minutes to come chat with us.

It's been swell, friends... Thanks for everything.

This is a Standoff last released the Be Delighted EP in 2011.

Toronto's The Artist Life are calling it a day, the band has announced.

It's a New Year. A new year full of resolutions, new stories to create and most of all, a fresh new beginning. With that being said, we wish this was one if those moments we tell you all something new and exciting. Unfortunately, this being 'new' it my not be that exciting to most.

It's been an amazing 5 years. But today is the day The Artist Life will be laid to rest. Thank you all so much for the support over the years and for believing in this band.

They will play a final show on March 31st, at Sneaky Dee's in Toronto. In addition to the show, the band unveiled a video for their song "Impossible," off of their now-final album Impossible, which was released last year.

You can read the band's full statement on their website, and you can click Read More for the video.

A Static Lullaby have called it quits after 11 years together. Guitarist Dan Arnold posted to the band's Facebook page:

Hi, Dan here, I'd like to thank everyone who supported the band for the past 11 years, i'ts been an amazing ride. It's very bittersweet to say that A Static Lullaby will not be making a new record, we are comfortable with what we have done with our music and have decided that "if it aint broke don't fix it". DON'T FRET THOUGH, I'm sure there will be plenty of music to listen to from most of the members. From Joe Brown, Dan Arnold, Brett Dinovo, Matthew Faulkner, Dane Poppin, Tyler Mahurin, John Martinez, Phil Pirrone, Nathan Lindeman. Thanks for helping us to become who we are today, make sure you click on the links above to check out what some of the guys have been creating over the years. Love, Dan Arnold

A Static Lullaby formed in 2001, and released 4 albums together. Their last release was 2008's Rattlesnake!.

Melbourne, Australia's A Death in the Family have announced that they have decided to call it a day. The band released the following statement on their website:

[Our] band is no longer. To cut to the chase, we've hit a cross-roads (or dead-end as it seems). Each of our lives and circumstances are vastly different than they were a few years ago and as a group we've simply decided now is a good time to move on, rather than pushing on. As a band we've done more than we ever imagined and made life long friends in many parts of the world.

The band last released Origins in 2010 via Poison City Records.

Deathwish Inc.'s The Carrier are the latest hardcore band to fall to the two album curse. The band is splitting up in March, and explained thusly:

It's with very mixed emotions that we announce that The Carrier will be breaking up this upcoming March. There are a lot of reasons that have led us to this decision, and it wasn't an easy one. But ultimately, we all share a mutual feeling that we're transitioning into different chapters in our lives-personally and musically. The overall mood of the band has changed profoundly since we first started, and frankly, we can't continue to put forth the passion that we once had. With that being said, we're getting older, it doesn't feel right to continue playing songs that we wrote in our mid-teens. And sadly, we're finding it increasingly difficult write new material. Thus, it only feels right that we come to an end.

The band last released Blind To What Is Right in 2011.

Boston's The Credentials have announced that they are calling it quits. Their final performance will be at Smash It Dead Fest in Boston, MA in March, and they will be releasing one last 7", a split with Steelhorse. A release date has not been announced.

The band wrote:

We're breaking up. As a close friend recently confided in me, "The Credentials was three people who should never have been in the same room together". We did a lot in a short time–a tape, two LPs, and four 7″s, two full U.S. tours, countless weekends, fests, and Boston shows–and we're pretty ready to give it a rest. This band gave us the opportunity to make amazing friends all over the country, to travel places none of us had ever been, to put out fucking records, play with insane bands, and to connect to people through love of music and punk.

I think that's everything. Thank you so much to everyone who helped us out over the years…it's really difficult to express in words how much it all has meant to me…so come to the last show and freak the fuck out.

Their last album was Goocher in 2011. You can read their full post here.

Nick Cave project Grinderman has apparently called it quits. According to a report from Australia's The Vine, Cave ended the band's performance at the Meredith Music Festival by saying:

That's it for Grinderman. It's over. See you all in another ten years when we'll be even older and uglier.

The group, which included three members of the Bad Seeds - multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis, bassist Martyn Casey and drummer Jim Sclavunos - released two albums: Grinderman and Grinderman 2.

Baltimore's Pulling Teeth have announced that they are calling it a day, with their upcoming performance at the A389 Recordings Anniversary Bash as their final show. The band stated, simply, "as a band we have accomplished everything that we have set out to do. Life is short. It's time to move on and do other things."

In the band's 6 years together, they released four albums and a number of splits and EPs. Their most recent release was Funerary in 2011.

You can get more information on their final show here. The A389 Anniversary Bash will also feature Eyehategod, Integrity, Gehenna, and more.

The Riot Before are calling it a day, according to a blog post by frontman Brett Adams this morning. Brett writes:

Though The Riot Before has been made up of thirteen different musicians over the course of its eight year existence, Cory, Freddy, and Jon were by far the most important and influential members. They performed on Rebellion and Fists Buried in Pockets, they were on stage during the vast majority of our five-hundred plus shows, and they sacrificed their time, their money, their personal lives to make this band work for as long as it did. The band is permanently indented with their influence, so much so that, with all three of them now gone, it would be both insensitive and dishonest to stand alone on something built by a group and obstinately declare it The Riot Before. So I won't.

The band's most recent release is 2010's Rebellion. You can read the full post on the band's Tumblr, here.

Thursday has announced an indefinite hiatus. The long-running New Brunswick, NJ band made this statement:

Despite the fantastic year that the band has enjoyed, creatively, things haven't been as easy for us on a personal level. Without diving into detail, it's fair to say that this year has been an endless series of personal difficulties. We haven't had any falling out and are all still close. I'm sure that we will continue to create, in some capacity, together. We've talked about turning Thursday into something else: a non-profit, a band that only records sporadically, a collection of other projects… Underneath it all, the personal circumstances involved make it impossible to continue Thursday in the spirit that has made it special. So, we stop. For now, at least.

The band released No Devolución in 2011. Check out their full statement here.

The 1st Five is reporting that Houston, TX based O Pioneers!!! are calling it quits. Frontman Eric Solomon released this statement to the website:

O Pioneers!!! should have ended a long time ago. I started this band in the fall of 2004, and it's slowly changed and migrated into what it is today, based off of the millions of people that have been in this band. I got tired of trying to con people into playing songs that they liked, or may have been a fan of, but ultimately they didn't have a connection with, besides something that was at face value.

In light of the break-up, the band has released their entire discography as a pay-what-you-want download, which you can check that out at Juicebox Recordings. The band's last full-length, Neon Creeps, came out back in 2009.

Fans of band's work should keep an eye out for their new group, Black Clouds, which Solomon expands more on in his interview with The 1st Five here. O Pioneers!!! will do one last US tour this winter with New Bruises, and plan to play Europe in the spring.

You can click Read More for the US dates.

Canadian punk band The Sainte Catherines are calling it quits after 12 years together, the band announced today on their Facebook page.

There are hundreds of reasons for why we are disbanding, some of which even our closes friends would not even understand. Being part of The Sainte Catherines has recently brought more negative energy to our individual lives than positive. We don't want to become pale copies of what we once were, trying to hold on to the "glory of the past", or what little we had. Something we are proud of.

The band's most recent release was Fire Works in 2010. You can read the full statement here (in French and English).

Indiana's Grown Ups announced today via Facebook that the band is calling it quits. They posted:

Well, it's been fun. Went to a lot of cool places. Met some of the best people. Maybe we'll have our shit together to play one more set. Thanks everybody.

Grown Ups formed in 2009. Their most recent release was 2011's Handholder EP.

Richmond, VA melodic-hardcore outfit Landmines has decided to call it a day. The band formed in 2005, and was the first to release a record on Paper+Plastick. Guitarist Tony Marston issued the following statement:

This band started as a group of friends getting together and jamming on (what we thought were) righteous punk rock tunes over cold (and sometimes not so cold) beers. Luckily, that never changed. Unfortunately life has gotten in the way. Our drummer, Patrick, has moved to Philly, and our singer, Paul, has moved back to Mass, both for very valid reasons, and the rest of us would never hold that against them, but we have realized that a long distance relationship is not for us.
Honestly, these are only a couple of the countless reasons the band has run it's course, they just happen to be that proverbial last straw. There's no hard feeling between any of us, we all love each other very much still and are still very stoked to get together over cold (or not so cold) beers. If you're one of the handful of people that was into the band, then thank you, and we appreciate it. Now go make your sandwiches.

The band's final release, Hell Is What You Make It was released this year. The band also recently released a music video for the title track.

Political punks Detournement have announced their "exit strategy." The band, which began in 2008 with members of Lifetime, Wortheless United, Bigwig, Ensign members, announced that they are calling it quits after the release of an elaborate new vinyl release and a (nearly) final show this week. The band has cited "creative in-differences" as the reason for their split. Details about the second to last show can be found here and will feature the band headlining in Asbury Park, NJ. A final, final show is expected before the end of the year.

The band is also planning a literally "explosive" final vinyl release in the form of a Know Your Rights which will be packaged in the form of a molotov cocktail, complete with screen printed fuse and bottle. You'll probably have to supply your own gasoline or napalm. The hand-numbered bottles are limited to 250 copies and you can find the record here.