If you’ve had your eye on the progressive hardcore underground at all this year, you’ve probably seen Endless, Nameless come up a few times now, and if you haven’t you are certainly about to.
The Colorado quartet’s emotive, crushingly detailed layers of sound submerge the listeners in waves of math rock, prog, alternative, and more, glueing it all together with Elle Reynolds’ uniquely captivating vocals.
2018’s Counterparts was one of the year’s most promising records, but as we all know, the years that followed were anything but stable, and the way we see it, if you are still a band after the pandemic and able to release music, you’ve won – but Endless, Nameless have used their time particularly wisely. Without compromising an atom of spunk or credibility within the territories they’ve already flexed in, Living Without, the new Endless, Nameless album spreads it’s wings in a terrifying, beautiful way, and today, we are humbled as hell to premier this exclusive full album stream.
Dig in immediately below.
We’re not sure if there was a particular sit-down or conversation regarding the album’s structure that resulted in what we are listening to today, but every once in a while we are reminded of the power of good sequencing. One of the subtler achievements of Living Without is in the way it lures existing fans, hypnotizing them to a degree before surprising them with “Propaniac,” which is coincidentally one of our favorite songs of the year thus far. It’s also the band’s most explicit nod to the Nirvana aesthetic that helped inspire their name… oh, and if that’s not Raygun Busch of Chat Pile in the middle there, it’s a damn good impression, and contrast the higher shrieks quite nicely.
“A Gradual Unwinding” is another album highlight, juxtaposing endearing math rock intricacy a la Hikes and Piglet with the soaring post-hardcore of Hail the Sun and sonic-destruction of Holy Fawn.
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We also love the mix of the production styles – you can hear the math rock plain as day butted up against more modern scenes of ambience, some of which really pull you in. For instance, “Sarah Lynn,” features some of the driest shred guitar tone we’ve heard since CHON‘s first demo before closing the album with a cathartic, borderline-singalong outro.
But at the end of the day, comparisons might not be as helpful as they normally are with a band like Endless, Nameless. Their collage of genre and sound amounts to something far greater than hero worship – for all of its familiar elements, the record doubles down on using them to craft a powerful, original statement. To call it one thing is perhaps to ignore another equally important aspect of it, and when the results are this rewarding, you want to make sure you take it in for all that it is.
It’s a lofty trick no matter who you are, but Endless, Nameless absolutely nail it on Living Without.
We’re calling now this is probably gonna go on the big list at the end of the year, we were banging our heads for the duration of this review. It’s a record, we – ahem – wouldn’t want to be living without. Special thanks to Chain World for setting this up as well – for more Endless, Nameless, check out their Bandcamp here, and if you wanna dehydrate us sometime, buy us a coffee here. Also, we’ve been trying Twitch lately and it’s a lot of fun – Juan, Iván, and myself have thus far discussed math rock bands we miss, what is the most math rock pedal, and what makes a classic math rock band a classic – we’re not sure what is next, but keep an eye on our socials for warnings and come hang out. Once we know what we’re doing we’ll put something more formal on the site. Anyway, as always thanks for reading and have great weekend, we’ve had two dope exclusives this week so that ought to be enough to celebrate. Till next time!