Album Review: Spineless- Story Upon the B-Sides

I was introduced to Spineless somewhere in the middle of an Instagram Reel scroll session. Woken sharply from my internet-induced daze by the jarring sounds of distorted guitar, I immediately sought more from this new band and their enticing sound. Weeks later, all I can really tell you is that Spineless is a metalcore band from Texas, and their new project, Stories Upon the River B-sides delivers a hard punch.

If a breakdown is the disassembly of a riff/groove to its heaviest, most primal instincts, Spineless takes theirs to a different level. The sheer force of Spineless’s instrumentals is so violent that it seems like even the microphones struggle to contain it. The sound itself begins to break down, the audio overmodulating at the most intense moments. The low end overpowers everything; trading hard-hitting rimshots for an earth-shaking, headphone-obliterating rumble. Every sidechained kick drum is a punch to the stomach. The guitars are oversaturated with an incendiary midrange, burning over thick distorted basslines. 

The final of the three tracks on the four-and-a-half-minute project is a clear outlier. On “SUNDOG ILY,” DnB breaks skitter across an intense, pulsing jersey club beat. A shimmering, overdriven piano sample gives the track an ethereality that, although seemingly unconventional, works well alongside a pairing of ruthless metalcore tracks. It almost reads as an outro à la Turnstile’s “T.L.C.”—after spin kicking for a few minutes, it's nice to close things out with something a little more bouncy.

In the perpetual search for new levels of aggression in heavy music, Spineless’s Stories Upon the River B-sides doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but takes enticing risks, sacrificing clarity for energy. The four-and-a-half-minute project comes and goes with intoxicating brutality—it packs an overwhelming sound into a more manageable duration. The band’s fusion of metalcore with electronic music and an ethereal sound is highly satisfying, indicative of the genre-melding characteristics of today’s internet-inspired aesthetics. For a project with tendencies so characteristic of the internet age (short, intense, and overstimulating), it’s definitely appropriate that Story Upon the River Side B-Sides found me through the algorithm. If the title is any indication of a larger project on the way, consider me tuned.

RIYL: Code Orange
Recommended Tracks: “in this, i see heaven” (but just listen to the whole project: it's like 4 minutes)
FCC: 2 (explicit)

-DJ Redvines AKA Shalen Farahi