Breach (band)


Breach was a Swedish post-hardcore band, which originally formed in 1993 in Luleå, Sweden. The band, which included a large line-up near the end of their lifetime as a group, is noted for combining various elements of hardcore with metal music. They issued 5 full-lengths through Burning Heart Records and a slew of EPs through a variety of labels before officially breaking up in 2002. Since their split, the group has performed one reunion show in 2007.

History

The band was formed in Luleå in 1993, and released their first full-length album in 1995. Pelle Gunnerfeldt from Fireside recorded and mixed several of the group's albums. Shortly after the release of Kollapse the band announced that they had decided to split up. Vocalist Tomas Hallbom explained that while there were many factors into the group's break-up, the primary reason for their split was caused by the lack of agreements made within the band's expansive seven-member line-up. The band played a reunion show in Stockholm on 6 December 2007 and ended the show by destroying all their instruments, leading fans to speculate that this would be the band's final show.

Style

Breach started as a metal influenced hardcore band. The band's later style features a mixture of hardcore, crust punk, post-hardcore, post rock and black/thrash metal. They combine fast metallic parts with clean, atmospheric guitar lines. Their production is a lot rawer and harsher than that of most modern post-hardcore bands. Critic Steve Huey compared the band's sound to the "difficult-to-classify hardcore/metal hybrids on the Victory Records label." Stephen Hill of Louder Sound described the band's style as "Unsane or Prong with more expansive flourishes" as well as name their 2000 album Venom as an underrated release within the European hardcore scene. Kollapse was named "a masterpiece in the violent birth of post-metal" on pinpointmusic.com.

Band members

;Final line-up
;Former members
;Studio albums
;Singles and EPs