I’ve always claimed that I didn’t like screamo (the actual genre, not what your mom calls any music with screaming in it). I’ve made note of this when speaking about big glaring exceptions—most recently Chalk Hands. And at this point, I can’t tell if I’ve only heard bad screamo before this or if the skramz scene has gotten crazy good the last few years.

In either case, I am definitely picking up what Overo is laying down.

This Houston, Texas quartet infuses the typical screamo palette with huge dynamic shifts, clean feminine vocals, and even strings, synthesizers, and horns. Guitars flip from razor-sharp distorted riffs to crystalline arpeggios without warning (there’s even some acoustic!), the gymnastic bass lines and furious drums changing meter on a dime.

When it’s furious, it’s nuclear. When it’s delicate—which is often—it’s simply gorgeous. The interplay between the two vocalists is inspired, stretching their musical vocabulary far beyond the typical language of skramz. “Lung Compliance/Witness” also employs the poetry and voice of Roberto Tejada, and to great effect. Many of the softer moments here feel like twinkling Midwest emo groups like Benton Falls or Appleseed Cast.

But don’t let all this talk about its melodic elements distract you from just how hard this record is. At times, it is positively violent. There are several moments of true screamo, but they also meander into hardcore punk and post-hardcore. Those aforementioned clean feminine vocals sometimes turn to a shout that’s almost as aggressive as the screams.

Most of the songs are brief: only a handful break past the three-minute mark. But the exception is the monumental closer “Without You.” It takes all of the fury, delicacy, and intricacy of the nine tracks before it and wraps it all into a single near-seven-minute epic.

Waiting For The End to Begin is just over twenty-nine minutes, but what it lacks in run time it more than makes up for in passion. Every shift in volume, meter, rhythm, and vocal delivery is the right choice, creating a winding opus of hardcore passion, emo catharsis, and math rock complexity.

Waiting For The End to Begin is out now through Middle Man Records.

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