Hailing from Baltimore, End It embody a hardcore proud of its urban roots and its local footing. Unpleasant Living, released in 2022, condenses into a short, nervy format everything that makes the band strong: a raw energy, a sense of groove inherited from New York hardcore, and an attitude that never apologizes. In a few minutes, the record rolls out a string of direct songs, built for the stage and the pit’s dancefloor, without ever losing sight of the essentials.
A hardcore of the city
Everything on this record breathes the urban environment that produced it. The riffs are knife-cut, the tempos alternate between urgency and groovy heaviness, and the whole thing gives off a palpable tension. The band draws on the East Coast hardcore tradition, that of danceable breakdowns and chanted refrains, but adds a coarseness and immediacy all its own. You sense musicians seasoned by the live setting, able to turn every song into a catalyst for collective motion. The tempos are built for the body as much as for the ear, with those sudden slowdowns that unfailingly call for crowd motion. You can easily picture these songs played in a packed room, turning the audience into a compact, boiling mass.
A voice that carries the message
One of the record’s major assets lies in its vocals. Enraged, charismatic, and perfectly intelligible, they give body to lyrics rooted in daily life, pride, and survival in a hostile environment. There is an authenticity in this delivery that goes beyond mere vocal performance: you believe what is said, you feel the sweat and conviction behind every line. That sincerity does much for the record’s impact and gives it a strong identity, instantly recognizable from the first seconds.
Efficiency over ambition
Do not expect Unpleasant Living to redraw the boundaries of the genre. The record fully owns its status as a direct, functional object, designed to hit fast and well. Its brevity is at once its strength and its limit: one would have liked a few more breathing spaces, a developed moment or two, but the band clearly chose concision as a principle. That choice can be defended, even if it sometimes leaves a faint sense of the unfinished once the record ends.
In the end, Unpleasant Living does its job with fine assurance. It is not a revolutionary record, but a distillation of honest, infectious energy, driven by a band that knows exactly what it wants. Fans of urban, no-detour hardcore will find a perfectly calibrated jolt here, and others can at least salute the coherence of the approach. End It confirm their status as a rising force in an ever-prolific scene, with a record that above all makes you want to see it defended on the boards.
