Biography

Broken Truce is the end product of a concept originally brought to light in late 2006 by Tiens van Zyl (at that stage part of choking!hazard, a Vaal Triangle based hard-rock band.) as a heavier side project. Tiens approached Louis Venter, a long-time friend (And former member of choking!hazard) to perform guitaring duties (with Tiens on bass) and started auditioning drummers to complete their line-up.

Due to time constraints and other commitments the project was put on the back-burner until early 2009, when internal friction in choking!hazard rekindled the desire Tiens and Louis (Who in March 2007 had re-joined choking!hazard.) had for a heavier sound. The two decided to once again pursue the idea, and dubbed the project "Hellcyon", but soon afterwards renamed it "Broken Truce”, to avoid possible future copyright issues with other groups already performing under the same name, and started working on new material and auditioning for additional members. By July 2009 tensions in choking!hazard had reached a peak, and the group decided to go on an indefinite hiatus, leaving Tiens and Louis free to focus all their energies on Broken Truce.

Tiens' involvement with another side project, Inastait, introduced the pair to drummer Stuart Thompson, who in January 2009 took up drumming duties for the fledgling project. The addition of Stuart completed the core of the group, which ensured its survival through the following months.

In July 2009 Cameron Hay was recruited to perform vocal duties for the group. Before eventually having to leave the band due to outside commitments in September 2009, Cameron proved instrumental in writing and recording "Lying Eyes", the band's first single, with Andrew Cherry recording, mixing and mastering the track for them. It was released as a free download in October 2009 on Myspace, Reverbnation.com, Purevolume.com and brokentruce.com

With steady progress being made in generating new material the group decided to add a second guitarist to their line-up in order to flesh out their sound, and proceeded to recruit Warren Boswell (October 2009), then Michael du Bruyn (November 2009) and eventually Andrew Cherry (December 2009), all of whom could not continue their membership with the band due to outside commitments. Unable to find another guitarist with the same skill and commitment, and fearing being unable to train another guitarist in time for their first performance, the group decided to cut their losses and remain a single guitar band.

In December 2009, after several failed auditions trying to replace Cameron, Broken Truce approached long-time friend and supporter Andries Cornelius to take over vocal duties. Andries accepted and was the key role-player in completing the material for their first performance.

On Saturday, 30 January 2010, Broken Truce took the stage for the first time, filling the second slot in the line-up along with Mazaru and Nevame at the Boston Rock Lounge in Edenvale, Johannesburg.

After quite a few shows Broken Truce felt that they do need a second guitarist to complement their sound. After a long search and chatting to a friend Dylan, guitarist for Saints Method, Patric was punted as being the right guy for Broken Truce. Patric was asked to an audition in late August 2010 and got the job to join Louis on guitar.