Written by: Matt Sloan

Stereo Embers has just learned that the Gaslight Anthem have broken up.

Sort of.

Posting on their official Facebook page, the band wrote the following message:

“Hello all! We wanted to let everyone know that we’ll all be taking a break from The Gaslight Anthem after this next European tour in August. We’re all going to do other projects and stay active in some way or another, both in and out of music, but we’d like to step away from the band until we decide what we’d like to do next. We’d like to recharge and take a step back until we have something we feel excited about rather than going right back to making a record just for the sake of making the next record. We all feel this is the best decision we can make and it feels like the right one for us.”

Although that certainly does leave the door open for the New Brunswick band to return to the ring, the note had a fairly cryptic ending: “Thank you to everyone who came out and supported our band for the last eight years and we’ll see you down the road!”

…which doesn’t sound very hopeful at all.

Imagine if the person you were married to left this note on the kitchen table.

I think you see where I’m coming from.

The Gaslight Anthem formed in 2006 and have released five albums.

Stereo Embers’ Alex Green wrote of the band’s 2010 effort American Slang: “This is an absolute masterwork–an album with sting, punch and nerve. It sounds like longing, regret, love and conviction, racing down the streets in one big rock and roll fireball that’s sure to demolish the city of sorrow that’s stacked up in your swollen heart.”