State Faults (formerly known as Brother Bear) are an American

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term " post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad conste ...

band formed in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay A ...

in 2010.

Noisey ''Vice'' (stylized in all caps) is a Canadian-American magazine focused on lifestyle, arts, culture, and news/politics. It was founded in 1994 in Montreal as an alternative punk magazine, and its founders later launched the youth media company ...

included their album "Resonate/Desperate" as one of the records that best captures the last decade of

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (commonly abbreviated to hardcore or hXc) is a punk rock music genre#subtypes, subgenre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots ...

. In 2019, they were listed at number 16 on

Kerrang ''Kerrang!'' is a British music webzine and quarterly magazine that primarily covers rock, punk and heavy metal music. Since 2017, the magazine has been published by Wasted Talent Ltd (the same company that owns electronic music publication ...

's ''50 Best American Hardcore Bands Right Now'' list.

History

The band formed in 2010, under the name ''Brother Bear'', releasing their debut EP, ''Head In the Clouds'' the next year. However changed their name soon after due to the large number of bands who were also operating under that name. On 8 May 2012, they released their debut album ''Desolate Peaks'' through Tiny Engine Records. On 12 November 2013, they released their sophomore album ''Resonate/Desperate'' through No Sleep Records. In 2015, Kelley departed from the band, while Chris Hansen from No Sleep Records was pushing the band to put out a new record. This led to the three remaining members deciding to officially break-up and work on a separate musical project, which would turn out to be

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

band Slow Bloom. In 2019, Andrew, Weldon and Wallace reformed State Faults due to increased interest by fans and began recording material. Their first performance after reforming was at Santa Rosa's ''Chop Shop'' on 18 February, with support from Outlier, Sloth & Turtle and Pushing It. Their third album ''Clairvoyant'' was released on 21 June 2019. In December 2019, Brooklyn Vegan placed ''Resonate/Desperate'' at number 95 on their top 100

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

and

emo Emo () is a genre of rock music characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and from the Washington, D.C., hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands ...

albums of the 2010s. In addition to this, Chris Luedtke of Metal Injection included the album as an "Honourable Mention" in his list of the greatest albums of 2019.

Musical style

State Faults have primarily been categorised as

screamo Screamo (also referred to as skramz) is a subgenre of emo that emerged in the early 1990s and emphasizes "willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".Jason Heller, "Feast of Reason". ''Denver Westword'', June 20, 2002 Access date: June 15, 2 ...

and

possessing elements of

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

shoegazing Shoegaze (originally called shoegazing and sometimes conflated with dream pop) is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volum ...

, heavy metal,

mathcore Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signatur ...

and heavy psych. Their music often makes heavy usage of dynamics, by incorporating both ambient and cacophonous passages. Their softer sections are often utilized through the usage of reverb effects, ambient synths and occasionally spoken word. Dan Ozzi, a writer at

, described their music as "what a panic attack sounds like". Some tracks, such as "Wildfires", incorporate melody and hooks into

unclean vocals Vocalists are capable of producing a variety of extended technique sounds. These alternative singing techniques have been used extensively in the 20th century, especially in art song and opera. Particularly famous examples of extended vocal techniq ...

. Lyrically, their music generally focuses on

spirituality The meaning of ''spirituality'' has developed and expanded over time, and various meanings can be found alongside each other. Traditionally, spirituality referred to a religious process of re-formation which "aims to recover the original shape o ...

, makes use of references to the

occult The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysti ...

and is heavily emotional. A number of the tracks on their debut album were based on

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

and its repercussions. In an article for No Echo, Adam Yoe described their lyrics as "meditation on trauma and healing".

Members

;Current *Jonny Andrew – lead vocals, guitar (2010–2015, 2019–present) *Jef Overn – bass (2020–present), vocals (2020–present) *Jared Wallace – drums (2012–2015, 2019–present), guitar (2010–2012) *Michael Weldon – guitar (2010–2015, 2023–present), vocals (2010–2015, 2019–2020, 2023-present), bass (2019–2020) ;Former *Chip Kelley – bass, vocals (2010–2015) *Toby Brown – drums (2010–2012)

Discography

;Studio albums *''Desolate Peaks'' (2012) *''Resonate/Desperate'' (2013) *''Clairvoyant'' (2019) *''Children of the Moon'' (2024) ;EPs *''Head In The Clouds'' (2011) *''Moon Sign Gemini'' (2020) ;Singles *''Vespers'' (2010) *''Arrowhead'' (2010) *''Ugly'' (2012)

References

{{reflist, 30em American musical quintets American post-hardcore musical groups American screamo musical groups Musicians from Santa Rosa, California Musical trios from California No Sleep Records artists Tiny Engines artists