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Release date: September 12, 2025
Label: Self-released
Genre(s): Heavy rock, alternative
Formed during the 2020 pandemic, the band—frontman and songwriter Jacob C. Nolen with Houston Davis, Tyler Cory, and Brandon Morgan—spent years honing singles and live shows before dropping this 10-track, 34-minute record on September 12, 2025. It is billed as heavy-hitting rock with genre-spanning riffs and raw emotional lyrics. The songs deliver on that promise without padding.
Opener “Annihilation” slams the door open. “The Void / Endless Noise” and “Must Have It Wrong” keep the pressure on with tight structures and a sense of mounting frustration. Mid-album standout “Volvulus”—named after a life-threatening intestinal twist—uses the medical image as a metaphor for internal war. Nolen sings of carrying lifelong weight, clawing at a cage, and the uselessness of fighting yourself: “Take this aching way of being alive / It’s useless to fight myself sometimes.” The chorus punches with “It’s never enough,” then detonates into a shouted release. It is the record’s most vivid moment.
“Heaven’s Close[d]” and “Red Pillar” lean into darker, more atmospheric hard rock. “Cares” and “Fix It” offer brief breathing room without losing urgency. “Fire (2025)” and closer “Resolve” push toward catharsis rather than neat resolution. The album’s brevity works in its favor; nothing overstays, and the sequencing feels like one long argument with the self.
Nolen’s writing stays personal and unvarnished—inner conflict, failed attempts at change, the grind of existing while something inside stays knotted. The music matches: riff-driven, live-ready, and more concerned with impact than polish. It does not reinvent the form, but it also does not hide behind irony or excess production. For a first full-length from a still-emerging regional act, that directness is a strength.
Among Others is the sound of a band that spent the quiet years writing the songs they needed to hear. It is short, sharp, and sincere. Listeners who want arena-sized hooks or conceptual sprawl will look elsewhere. Those who respond to taut, emotionally charged hard rock will find a debut that already knows what it wants to say.
Among Others is available as a download here.
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