For anyone who grew up watching Brisbane alternative rock band Screamfeeder perform, it’s probably hard to believe – or at least difficult to confront – that they’ve been around for more than a quarter of a century.

To celebrate the milestone, the band have just released a career-spanning, 24-song compilation, Patterns Form.

Screamfeeder – singer/guitarist Tim Steward, singer/bassist Kellie Lloyd, drummer Dean Shwereb and guitarist Darek Mudge, who officially rejoined the group in 2014 – had previously released the compilation album Introducing Screamfeeder in 2004, but as Steward tells U on Sunday, Patterns Form was remastered specifically for vinyl.

“When we thought of the idea of putting the songs to vinyl, the main thing was in the interim, we managed to digitise all our tape masters,” he says. “So we actually had the real source of recordings and could master it specifically for vinyl with more dynamics, more bottom end.”

The band’s debut album Flour was released in 1992 and quickly followed by the excellent Burn Out Your Name less a year later, which included the timeless Fingers and Toes and Wrote You Off,and third album Fill Yourself With Music yielded further radio alternative radio hits, including the album’s title track, Lost in the Snow and Who’s Counting.

By the time their fourth full-length Kitten Licks – which included the brilliantly crafted singles Dart and Gravity – was released in 1996, the band were regulars on the then-thriving festival circuit, regularly playing Brisbane’s Livid festival and Big Day Out, and earning coveted support slots for the likes of Pavement, Sonic Youth and Rollins Band.

The band released a further two studio albums – Rocks on the Soul and Take You Apart – in 2000 and 2003, before taking a hiatus in 2005.

“I guess there have been those moments, especially in say the mid-noughties, when we essentially stopped doing anything for quite a few years,” singer and guitarist Tim Steward says.

“I think it was harder for Dean our drummer, because for me and Kellie, we’re the songwriters, so we get that maintained creative buzz from being in the band. Dean just found he wasn’t feeling it because there were so little returns.”

Screamfeeder continued to play sporadically until 2011, when the band played what was billed as their final show, but after dipping their toes back in the water in 2013 to support former Husker Du guitarist and singer Bob Mould, they realised they still had an undeniable chemistry.

“When you have a lot of time off, you forget the fine intricacies of what happens when you’re on stage together or in a room writing songs together,” Steward says.

“You might just look at the vague, very abstract view of the band as this thing which caused you some frustration or involved a lot of work, then you get back together and play a gig and go ‘man, that as so easy and effortless and so fun, and we’re all pumped up’.”

In late 2014, the band teamed up with Melbourne label Poison City to reissue their back catalogue, and as Steward explains, this show of faith was integral in encouraging the band to continue playing, and to release last year’s Pop Guilt, their first studio album in 12 years.

“Andy (Hayden) at Poison City, he’s the main person responsible for us getting out and getting our shit together again, going on tour – even recording last year’s album – he put the fire back in the band, really.”

Screamfeeder will be launching Patterns Form at The Zoo, in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley, this week, and the band will also perform at Stones Corner Festival early next month, a show Steward says will be unlike any set the band have played before.

“I’m pretty excited about that one,” he says. “It’s going to be a weird gig for us and I can’t really say why yet but it’s going to be great. There’s definitely a surprise in store.”