‘Panic! At The Disco’ is breaking up after 19 years
Brendon Urie of Panic! at the Disco has said that the group is breaking up after all these years
Formed in Las Vegas with lead singer Urie, guitarist Ryan Ross, bassist Spencer Smith, and drummer Brent Wilson, the band has since added John Walker and Dalton Weekes.
Over the past few years, however, Panic! has essentially been Urie’s solo endeavour, since he has been the only regular band member except the drummer and guitarist.
Urie announced the band’s dissolution today in a statement, citing his impending fatherhood with wife Sarah Orzechowski as a major factor. The band will officially break up when their next European tour concludes.
Panicfirst !’s work, when they emerged as pop-punk contemporaries of bands like My Chemical Romance and Paramore, was extremely melodramatic, sometimes featuring Urie in extravagant, gothic clothes.
Their first two major successes, I Write Sins Not Tragedies (which peaked at number 25 in the UK) and Nine In The Afternoon, are still well recognised and played today (Number 13 peak).
Nonetheless, the band underwent something of a tonal shift in the 2010s, leaning into maximalist pop-rock on their 2018 LP Pray For The Wicked, which featured their highest-charting song ever in the UK, High Hopes, which peaked at Number 12.
Panic! at the Disco never had a hit in the UK Top 10 charts. During their 19-year career, At The Disco released five albums that charted in the top ten: 2008’s Pretty Odd (peaked at #2), 2013’s Too Weird to Live Too Rare to Die (peaked at #10), 2016’s Death of a Bachelor (peaked at #2), 2018’s Pray for the Wicked (peaked at #2), and 2021’s Viva Las Vengeance (peaked at #2). (5).
Brendon Urie has been silent about when he plans to begin working on new music, although he did take a little step into solo territory after Pray For The Wicked by appearing on Taylor Swift’s candy-coated Me!