Cedric Bixler-Zavala announced via Twitter last night that The Mars Volta have broken up. This past fall the group announced that it would take some time off with Omar Rodríguez-López focusing on Bosnian Rainbows, a new group with Deantoni Parks. Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López founded The Mars Volta in 2001 from the ashes of their previous group At the Drive-In. The band (which may have played the loudest set in the history of Bonnaroo’s Which Stage back in 2009) released its sixth album,Noctourniquet, last spring.

Bixler-Zavala’s successive tweets last night read: “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.”