Turnstile : Never Enough
From a mainstream point of view, no other field of heavy music can hold a candle to hardcore right now. What was once a niche sound has now infiltrated the zeitgeist, with hardcore bands making their way into Coachella and late-night talk shows. Though there are various factors that have guided the modern sound of hardcore to this latest stage of success, one band in particular has been a leading light in its crossover from the underground: Turnstile.
Though they’ve been around since 2010, the Baltimore band struck gold a decade into their career with 2021’s Glow On. Turnstile has always been a heavy band, but with Glow On, they introduced more musical variety into their muscular approach. In Turnstile’s leveraging of alternative rock melody and touches of pop sentimentality, Glow On made for a tour de force of catchy aggression. Pure heaviness has its audience, but let’s face it, it doesn’t help to add a little dose of pop sweetness. In the early 2020s, Glow On served as a vehicle to introduce a new generation of kids to hardcore. Couple the record’s release alongside the growth of hardcore among online communities and Turnstile found themselves catapulted to the top.
Glow On’s impact on hardcore is tremendous, which puts a lot of pressure onto Turnstile’s shoulders with Never Enough. For their follow-up to Glow On, the band’s lineup stays mostly intact, with lead vocalist Brendan Yates, bassist Franz Lyons, guitarist Pat McCrory and drummer Daniel Fang, along with the new addition of guitarist Meg Mills replacing Brady Ebert. And though hardcore remains the foundation of Turnstile’s sound, the band leans even harder into their alt-rock and pop sensibilities on Never Enough. While heavier instrumentation is nestled within, the title opener is primarily composed out of droning, smoothing synthesizer.
From there, Turnstile’s arrangements unfurl in a vibrant diversity of styles from track to track, encapsulating everything from playful-sounding hardcore (“Sunshower”) to dream-pop (“I Care”), to touches of pop-punk (“Light Design”). Turnstile never abandon their roots on Never Enough, but hardcore does take more of a backseat to various other approaches in the group’s palette.
Throughout its 14 tracks, Never Enough serves as a rumination on the complex dimensions of melancholy. Yates presents poetic vignettes of individuals struggling with loneliness, depression, and longing for stability. Such an example is this line from “Dull”—“And there’s a ringing when you talk to me”—as the song’s narrator struggles to be fully present with another. Several of Never Enough’s songs capture this duality—of loneliness when loved ones are nearby, of wanting to feel happiness, but struggling to feel any.
Yet in spite of such somber reflection, Turnstile’s powerful sonics do wonders to create a cathartic release. The heart of this quality comes in the band’s embrace of rock and pop, and their ability to bring the two into harmony. Rather than songs that lean obviously into the gloom, their emphasis on melody creates a buffer for the listener to work through the lyrics. On “Dreaming,” as Yates sings, “When I get to dreaming, then I know / Everything I fear is so real,” the band backs him up with a lively pounce of drums, maracas, and horns. Yates’ lyrics might connect with you and stir up reflections of personal struggles, but you might also feel inspired to dance that dread out.
As the follow-up to one of the most influential records in contemporary hardcore, it’s perhaps not quite accurate to call Turnstile’s Never Enough a hardcore record. It certainly has doses of heaviness sprinkled throughout, but this record feels like a turning point in Turnstile’s career. With their greater embrace of alternative rock, dreamy atmosphere and pop sensibilities, Turnstile has proven that there’s no limit to their potential.
Label: Roadrunner
Year: 2025
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Turnstile : Never Enough
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