“Ad Nauseam,” by Hoofless: Album Review

Good evening you wretched whores. It’s so great to join you on this fateful evening. Tonight I have what I consider to be a treat for you! Because I’m so awesome and smart and articulate and shit idk. AND EVERYONE LOVES READING MY SHIT! My review of a new album by a local band, repping what it all be about up in this bitch. The super somber chamber punk/experimental band Hoofless from the dark black hole of Salt Lake City, Utah is on the “chopping block” for my next review. After four long years they have returned with their second album, “Ad Nauseam,” released on March 5th of 2022.

1. How did you discover the incredible Hoofless?

Hoofless is one of many artists that I found simply because I know a lot of people in bands so I see a lot of local lineups on Facebook and Instagram. I love most bands I’ve heard that are cello led, and lead singer Halee Jean with (I’m not sure what this person’s pronouns are so I’m just gonna say) their loop pedal and their beautiful voice and the whole vibe of the band, brings a unique project to this vein of the music world. Especially among other celloish bands we could group them together with such as Lung, Apocalyptica, or This Patch Of Sky. They’re one of those bands I definitely had to reach out to with my compliments. As a result of this, Halee Jean listened to my music, and when they saw me at a show they actually complimented me. I was so fucking shook and humbled and grateful that I said, “Do you even know who you’re talking to?” as in like, “When you say you “love my music,” do you think you’re even talking to the right person?” They were. So def one of the better experiences in my life thus far. I’m so glad I found this band, and that it led me to that musician milestone, genuineness being reciprocated by a great musician! Life is fucking wild dawg.

2. How good are the lyrics??

I’m going to update this. It’s only been out for a month and the lyrics aren’t on their bandcamp so this answer is yet to come.

3. How good are the instrumentals???

Unlike the first Hoofless release, this album has mostly no vocals, almost making it an experimental post rock album from my perspective. I love most things about this aspect of the album. It’s dark, it builds, it swells, there’s a noisy outro to one of the songs. Hoofless is like it’s own little symphony of shadows, channeling deep messages from creatures of the night. There’s a lot of layering and wide varieties of sounds all throughout too. “Ad Nauseam,” is a true sonic journey. Considering the songs are so long, I wish there was a little more variety within the buildups but I can’t fault it too hard because the consistency is really good!

4. How good are the vocals????

I can’t say the vocals are bad here by any means. Like I said before, Halee Jean’s voice rocks. The whole vibe of the vocal delivery reminds me equally of the softness/badassery of voices like Hayley Williams and Lauren Mayberry. Throughout all Hoofless recordings you can detect harder/punk sensibilities all the way to softer classical feelings and I find it impressive for a vocalist to be able to display such variety. On “Ad Nauseam,” I wish there were more vocals going on, but I can see how the direction they’re going for doesn’t call for it nearly as much.

5. How is the length????? Too long????? Too short?????

As someone who loves plenty of super long songs, I think this album is just right. For those who are not into long songs, be aware that there isn’t a Hoofless song in existence that is less than nine minutes, so this probably isn’t the band for you. But I think for the most part they put enough into that time frame to keep it moving forward at a good pace, and keep my attention. Hoofless is especially good at crafting musical tapestries, lots of different instruments going on, subtle details in between the lines, plenty of good crescendos and de crescendos especially with the horns. There’s plenty here to digest as a musical listener, but not too much.

6. How cohesive is this album??????

I think this is where Hoofless could always get all the praises. They have a good variety of stuff going on and changing throughout, but they manage to keep a certain melancholy vibe that resonates through the full duration. As far as bands making music goes, this is as cohesive as it gets like, I don’t see this level of it often.

7. How diverse is this album???????

Now for me, diversity in music is a big deal. If a discography goes too long without much deviation from whatever is established by those early releases, I can hardly consider it’s creator an artist. That’s just my thing. Out of the two ways I see diversity being executed in music, “Ad Nauseam,” does one of them. There’s putting different elements into certain songs on an album but staying true to a sort of rooted concept. Then there’s shifting into different directions with each new release or every couple new releases or something. The second is what Hoofless does well. Both their albums really don’t deviate much from one vibe, but the stylistic progress and change between the first and the second album is very clear. As far as diversity goes, Hoofless takes everything they did in the past, puts a new spin on it, and added elements they didn’t have before. I think they do it quite well.

8. How accessible is “Ad Nauseam,” by Hoofless????????

The mainstream couldn’t possibly be sophisticated enough to understand why bands like this fucking rock. But I think Hoofless definitely has something to offer to a whole ass plethora of music listeners from fans of post rock to noise to ambient to punk to experimental to classical to soundtracks and beyond. However, As “Ad Nauseam,” is not an album of many vibes, I feel like there are few good places to play it out loud besides my bedroom. It’s got strong “I should totally paint while listening to this,” vibes.

9. Did this album hold my attention?????????

For the most part. The first song, “Doubting,” is pretty hard to not zone out to for me. It has two buildups from my understanding that don’t deviate from one another that much. It took me a while to even notice that the ending is drastically different then the beginning in that song. Not a bad song but the rest of the album holds my attention more. It gets a lot better as it goes. With each song I become more immersed in the experience.

10. What story does this album tell??????????

“Ad Nauseam,” is a latin term that means “An argument or discussion that has continued to the point of nausea. What that tells me is that the griffin and the two headed snake on the album cover are disciples of darkness. Maybe even agents of the grim itself. They fly together across all the land, their very presence representing doomsdays upon doomsdays to come. Everyone becomes all nauseous with fear. The creatures slowly become a beacon of humanity’s fear, slowly driving us all to fucking kill each other, Backwater Gospel style. (Much like what is actually happening in Merika right now lol)

11. What is the best song on “Ad Nauseam,” by Hoofless?

1. Track #4: And This Too, Again and Again

Closing out the album is the intense “And This Too, Again and Again. The drumming on this reminds me a bit of Danny Carey at times which is always dope. It starts super minimalist, just drums and cello plucking. Wavey, eerie violin harmonies and melodies sweep their way through, materializing and shrinking back into themselves before the buildup leads them into a dominating melody. And that’s just the first buildup. If you wanna know about the second one, if this sounds intriguing at all, fucking listen bitch!!

12. If you like any of the following 13 albums you should check this out!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. F#A# Infinity by Godspeed You! Black Emperor! (1997)
2. Reflections by Apocalyptica (2003)
3. A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out by Panic! At The Disco (2005)
4. Young Mountain by This Will Destroy You (2006)
5. 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons by Silver Mt. Zion (2008)
6. Geneva by Russian Circles (2009)
7. An Autobiography by Old Gray (2013)
8. Kids Are Hard by Mx Wander (2014)
9. This Patch Of Sky by This Patch Of Sky (2014)
10. Once We Knew The World Well by Black Flak And The Nightmare Fighters (2017)
11. Bottom Of The Barrel by Lung (2017)
12. Burn by Savage Daughters (2019)
13. Rotten Fruit; Regular Orchard by Portal To The God Damn Blood Dimension (2020)

13. Is this album better or worse than its predecessor???????????

As of this moment I prefer the Hoofless debut album “Mouth Feel,” from 2018 to this one. Packs more of a punch for me.

14. Does this album remind you of anything??????????????

Death Eaters like from Harry Potter.

All that being said, I give “Ad Nauseam,” by Hoofless 7 erect penises out of 11. That griffin probably so savage he just ripped some dudes apart along the way so that’s where the other 4 went I think.

Here’s a link! Please support Hoofless by purchasing their music on bandcamp!

Coming soon, if you dare to continue this journey with me, I met this super chill bro on Facebook named Thor, and we got messages for days about his up and coming band Mira Nova! Please stay tuned.