The news of the split comes in tandem with the surprise-release of their new album Clockworked, which they dropped without any run-up or single releases, defying industry tradition.
Speaking to Kerrang! about the decision, guitarist Tom Williams said, “I wanted to tap into the feeling I had when I would get records as a kid. Like, when Deftones’ White Pony came out, I saw the Change (In The House Of Flies) video on TV, then I went to the store and bought it. That doesn’t really happen anymore. Normally nowadays you announce the record and put out one song, then maybe a month later you’ll put out another song, then eventually the album comes out. It’s annoying. I play videogames, so when I saw the trailer for the remaster of Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater and the release date was like a year later, it pissed me off. But I watch TV shows, too, and when I found out that the whole new season of Squid Game would be out in like two weeks I was all like, ‘Let’s go!’
“I work in management for other bands, including Counterparts, who did something similar recently with their Heaven Let Them Die EP. Theirs was completely secret, though. We didn’t tell anyone. We didn’t ship it to stores. We didn’t even upload it to Spotify until 48 hours before to avoid leaks. Stray haven’t been quite so secretive. People have known that one day they will wake up and a record will be there. I just find the idea that someone could find out about it, then go down to their record store and actually buy it an hour later so exciting.”
Clockworked is out now via SharpTone. Stay tuned to Kerrang! for farewell tour updates.
Read this next: