The group toured extensively and internationally in support of their albums with like-minded bands such as The Blood Brothers, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Ink & Dagger and Jesuit.
Botch struggled to write a third studio album, and in 2002 the group broke up due to tensions among the band members and creative differences.
After Botch broke up, most of the members went on to form or join new bands in the Seattle/Tacoma area including: Minus the Bear, Narrows, Roy, Russian Circles and These Arms Are Snakes.
The group spent their active years "poking fun" at the local music scene by avoiding common clichés.
Rejecting contemporaneous trends in hardcore, Botch eschewed the usual "skull and crossbones" aesthetic and ubiquitous "chugga-chugga" riffs for a stripped-down, confessional presentation and complex arrangements.
[2] Some of their early song titles included: "Barney the Purple Dinosaur," "Vegetarianism Is Anarchy," "Barbed Rectal Thermometer" and "Pudenda.
In early 1997, Botch went on a seven-week tour throughout the United States and Canada with Ink & Dagger and Nineironspitfire, which gained them a significant amount of exposure.
[7] Beginning with this tour, John Pettibone was hired as the group's manager, and it also was Botch's first time bringing their own lighting equipment with them.
[14] On July 28, 2001, Botch performed at Louisville, Kentucky's hardcore festival Krazy Fest 4[1][15] which also featured Coalesce, Converge, Poison the Well and Harkonen among others.
[14] Tensions between Tim Latona and Dave Knudson that originated from the We Are the Romans sessions and supporting tours built up to the point where members weren't communicating anymore.
"[17][18] Knudson had also begun writing softer-sounding songs that didn't fit Botch's style, and formed the side-project Minus the Bear in 2001.
Botch performed their final show on June 15, 2002, at The Showbox in downtown Seattle, Washington with The Blood Brothers, Harkonen and Playing Enemy.
"[17] Hydra Head Records released An Anthology of Dead Ends on October 15, 2002;[22] about four months after Botch played their final show.
[31] To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of Botch's final show, Hydra Head released a limited edition windbreaker that was only available for 24 hours on June 15, 2012.
"[35][36] Knudson continued performing with the math rock/indie rock band Minus the Bear with vocalist Jake Snider formerly of Sharks Keep Moving, drummer Erin Tate formerly of Kill Sadie, former Botch producer Matt Bayles on keys, and bassist Cory Murchy.
Minus the Bear quickly signed to Suicide Squeeze Records and released two EPs, This Is What I Know About Being Gigantic and Bands Like It When You Yell "Yar!"
[37] The post-hardcore group These Arms Are Snakes was formed in 2002 by Brian Cook, Steve Snere formerly of Kill Sadie, Ryan Frederiksen of formerly of Nineironspitfire, Joe Preston and Jesse Robertson.
[38] The group signed to Jade Tree Records and released the EP This Is Meant to Hurt You (2003) and their debut full-length Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home (2004).
During the break, Cook and Ben Verellen worked on These Arms Are Snakes' debut album Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home.
Cook contributed to Russian Circles' second and third studio albums Station (2008) and Geneva (2009); both of which were released through Suicide Squeeze Records.
In 2008, vocalist Dave Verellen formed the mathcore band Narrows with Rob Moran of Unbroken and Some Girls, Sam Stothers of Makeout Boys, Jodie Cox of Bullet Union, and Ryan Frederiksen of These Arms Are Snakes and Nineironspitfire.
[44] Hydra Head Records went out of business in 2020, leaving Botch's catalog without a home and was subsequently entirely removed from online streaming services.
In October 2021, Sargent House announced it had acquired Botch's full catalog and would maintain the band's digital presence as well as future vinyl represses going forward.
After These Arms Are Snakes' set, the members of Botch took to the stage without prior announcement to perform one song – "Saint Matthew Returns to the Womb".
[55] Coinciding with the Sargent House re-release of American Nervoso and their Tacoma reunion show, Botch announced a 14-date U.S. tour for October–December 2023.
Rock Sound also declared We Are the Romans as one of the "big four" math metal albums in May 2008,[66] and featured Botch in the publication's "Revolutionaries" column, which pays tribute to "the bands we just couldn't live without" in November 2006.
[citation needed] In October 2009, Botch was featured in AbsolutePunk's "Weekly Nostalgia" piece, which pays tribute to disbanded musical groups.
"[75] Latona described the negative reaction as "disheartening," and that Botch thought the group, "had something cool to share with people, and they were total assholes to us.
Cook designed the shirt by tracing an image out of a homosexual pornographic magazine and "drew a beer bottle over the cock," which was meant to be a "rebellion against all the typical skull and switchblade imagery" that is prevalent in the hardcore scene.
[17][69][89] The group's technically and complexly composed music, along with their use of odd time signatures, often garners them the label of mathcore[5][11][9] or math rock.