Home Read Albums Of The Week: Endless, Nameless | Living Without

Albums Of The Week: Endless, Nameless | Living Without

You know that weird dive bar? The one where metal bands, punks, prog outfits and noise-rockers all play on the same night? This Denver outfit could be the house band.

THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Hailing from Denver, Endless, Nameless deal in progressive songcraft and soul-baring sincerity — a mix of sculpted discordance and the rawest emotions, occupying a space where post-hardcore, grindcore, and prog intersect.

On Living Without, the followup to 2018’s debut EP Counterparts, the band spins a web of dizzying drums and knotty guitars, with vocalist Elle Reynolds pairing pensive melodies and primal screams that rip the ears like a swooping eagle.

“Someone described us as ‘identity crisis-core’ and I thought that was funny and represented us well,” Reynolds says. “We all come from such different musical backgrounds and I think we have a really fun time seeing how that manifests, especially as we influence each other over time. Everyone’s influences range from death metal to power-pop, it ends up being a sort of stew with everyone throwing in a bit of themselves and their roots.”

The playful euphoria of the music is contrasted by the gravity of Reynolds’ lyrics. “I cover a mix of personal and political topics on the album,” they reveal. “A lot of the time I am touching on both, and on how systemic violence can lead to interpersonal conflict and vice versa. Being a trans person, it feels like my personal identity is violently and forcibly made political, so a lot of the album touches on that and intentionally blends those two categories.”

The balance of unorthodox musicality and pure intensity, on full display across Living Without’s nine tracks, echoes the the works of greats such as The Mars Volta, The Fall of Troy, and Circle Takes the Square. Living Without was recorded and mixed by Austin Minney at All Aces Studio in Denver, and mastered by Brad Smalling at Evergroove Studios. The recording is natural and scrappy, and this is a strength; all the energy of a real performance has been captured. “We’re definitely on the proggier side but we take a noisy-as-fuck approach to our music,” states the band collectively. “We wanted that fun, imperfect energy to show on this record. Recording to a grid, especially in a prog or math setting, can come off too sterile and we wanted everything but.”

In a Denver scene that includes peers like Antibroth and Quits, Endless, Nameless are a standout. The newest addition to Silent Pendulum Records’ stellar roster of progressive/aggressive artists, Endless, Nameless are at home amongst labelmates such as The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Heavy Heavy Low Low and Sleepsculptor.

As any Nirvana fan will guess, the band is named for the hidden track that closes Nevermind. Explains guitarist Ricardo Bonilla: “It’s just so noisy and chaotic and its essence seemed to capture a lot of what we wanted to bring into fruition when we started the band.”

 

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