Not sure how long this will be, but with the breakup of Spawn of Possession yesterday, it adds again to the list of extreme Metal bands I love who have broken up.
Spawn of Possession
Textures
Agalloch
Cynic
and the other name that comes to mind is Vektor who are not technically broken up, but if I recall 4 of the 5 members left, so in many ways, they feel like they are also done, or may reinvent themself, i dunno.
The hope comes to mind when these bands break up, is at least to be curious what some of the members end up doing next. Solo stuff, or new bands. The members of Agalloch have done that anyway.
I guess I'm curious to find out what the guys in SoP will do now, especially since it sounded like they had been working on a new album. Maybe some of that material will come out in 1 or more forms or another.
I guess not Metal, but I look at the breakup of Oceansize in 2011, and what Mike Vennart has done since, to fill that void. In other words, I do hope the members of these bands do create new music and bring in work that I loved at least I enjoy if not love that is like the music they made with those bands.
The tough part often is though, it often isn't as good. But every situation is different, so I guess only time will tell.
I just hope that list above doesn't continue to grow anytime soon, but if it does, it does bring up the belief about music and obscure/cult-level artists just can't be expected to last for decades (or even 1 decade I suppose).
Or the other thought I often have is when one of these bands breaks up, I'd love to see a band from the past like Necrophagist, return (they haven't ever "officially" broken up, but their last album was in 2004. Their lack of recordings even beats Tool in that way).