Guys, I have some awful, bone (bong)-chilling news. The Mars Volta broke up. The divisive modern prog icons who rose from the ashes of At The Drive-In in 2001 have decided to part ways. You want proof? Here’s what singer Cedric Bixler Zavala tweeted out last night (in paragraph form):

“Thank u 2 all VOLTA fans u deserved more especially after the way u rooted for us on this album. I tried my hardest to keep it going, but Bosnian Rainbows was what we all got instead. I can’t sit here and pretend any more. I no longer am a member of Mars Volta. I honestly thank all of you for buying our records and coming to our shows. You guys were a blast to play in front of. We could never had done it with out you. My dream was to get us to the point were Jon Theodore and Ikey Owens came back but sadly it’s over. Thank u a million times over for ever giving a fuck about our band. For the record I tried my hardest to get a full scale North American tour going for Noctourniquet but Omar did not want to. I guess a break from mars volta means starting another band and ignoring all the support the fans gave us. I tried my hardest guys. All I can do is move forward with my music and just be happy that mars volta ever happened at all. God Damn we had a blast. Thank u again. I just feel really guilty for not even really saying the truth because a hiatus is just an insult to the fans.”

Anyway, he goes on. Sounds like him and his now former bandmate Omar Rodríguez-López have a bit of a beef.

The Mars Volta were one of two bands to come into existence after the breakup of At The Drive-In (the other band being the relatively staid and alt-rocky Sparta). For the uninitiated, The Mars Volta were the guys with the afros who played a lot of crazy guitar solos, Sparta were the other dudes. The Mars Volta immediately grabbed attention with their dense, technical-for-technicality’s-sake punk-prog, immediately gaining a wide fanbase while having to fend of bile-filled critical reception from sources that were unwilling to accept a band that tapped into the most indulgent aspects of prog. In 2012, following the release of Noctourniquet, the band went on hiatus, allowing Rodríguez-López to pursue one of his many other projects (which looks to have been a major point of consternation for Zavala).

The band, as with their time with ATDI, was known for their incendiary live performances, and will be remembered for fighting the good prog fight. They were a good, incredibly talented band with a penchant for inaccessibility and an Achilles’ Heel in the quality control department. They will be missed by some and likely scorned by others, as it has always been and as it always will be.

Oh, they also inspired this:

Goodnight, Mars Volta. You were a band that existed and no one can take that away from you.