The band formed in 2010, under the name Brother Bear, releasing their debut EP, Head In the Clouds the next year. However changed their name soon after due to the large number of bands who were also operating under that name. On 8 May 2012, they released their debut albumDesolate Peaks through Tiny Engine Records. On 12 November 2013, they released their sophomore album Resonate/Desperate through No Sleep Records. In 2015, Kelley departed from the band, at the same time as Chris Hansen from No Sleep Records was pushing the band the put a new record. This led to the three remaining members deciding to officially break-up and work on a separate musical project, which would turn out to be noise rock band Slow Bloom. In 2019, Andrew, Weldon and Wallace reformed State Faults, due to increased interest by fans and began recording material. Their first performance after reforming was at Santa Rosa's Chop Shop on 18 February, with support from Outlier, Sloth & Turtle and Pushing It. Their third album Clairvoyant was released on 21 June 2019. In December 2019, Brooklyn Vegan placed Resonate/Desperate at number 95 on their top 100punk rock and emo albums of the 2010s. In addition to this, Chris Luedtke of Metal Injection included the album as an "Honourable Mention" in his list of the greatest albums of 2019.
Musical style
State Faults have primarily been categorised as screamo and post-hardcore possessing elements of black metal,post-rock, shoegazing, heavy metal, noise rock, mathcore and heavy psych. Their music often makes heavy usage of dynamics, by incorporating both ambient and cacophonous passages. Their softer sections are often utilized through the usage of reverb effects, ambient synths and occasionally spoken word. Dan Ozzi, a writer at Noisey, described their music as "what a panic attack sounds like". Sometime tracks such as Wildfires incorporate melody and hooks into unclean vocals. Lyrically, their music generally focuses on spirituality, makes use of references to the occult and is heavily emotional. A number of the tracks on their debut album were based on anxiety and its repercussions. In an article for No Echo, Adam Yoe described their lyrics as "meditation on trauma and healing".