The band was formed by drummer Raymond Herrera and guitarist Christian Olde Wolbers, who had just left Fear Factory. They recorded a demo, sent it to Threat Signal vocalist Jon Howard and Arkaea was spawned. They tried to persuade Sam Rivers for bass, but he declined due to location.[2]Ryan Martinie of Mudvayne offered his services but could not tour due to Mudvayne commitments.[2] Finally, another Threat Signal member, Pat Kavanagh, joined on bass.
Their debut album was 13 tracks, most of which were originally intended for a new Fear Factory album. Years in the Darkness was released on July 14, 2009.[3] A five-minute sampler was released, the band posted the opening track "Locust" on their Myspace page and a video was released for "Gone Tomorrow".[4] It sold 980 copies in its first week, but was not particularly well received by critics.[5][6][7][8][9]
Beginning in January 2009, Arkaea toured heavily through the US and into Europe, continuing to tour through November 2010.[10][11] In July 2009, they played Germany's heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air.[12]
Despite releasing a short pre-production demo in 2012 and promising a new album later that year, the band has not been publicly active since. In 2011, Olde Wolbers moved on to the band Beowülf; Herrera on to entrepreneurial ventures. In December 2019, Wolbers noted in an Instagram post that he had started working on a new Arkaea album, but also noted that Herrera would be "too busy" to contribute.[13]
