Hundredth - Faded Splendor (2025)

Do any of you remember Hundredth? No, not the Myrtle Beach quintet that appeased the connoisseurs of melodic hardcore during the early-to-mid 2010's with the competent – if somewhat inconsequential – three album run of When Will We Surrender, Let Go & FREE. I'm talking about the band that seemingly beat everybody to the punches with the Shoegaze-worship of Rare from nearly a decade ago. Indeed, this musical metamorphosis was practically unheard of at the time: was it even reasonable for Hundredth to still carry the same moniker with a genre swap this drastic? It's almost funny now to consider the idea of a project like Rare resulting in some sort of whiplash from listeners, now that practically every single band in the rock-and-metal-circuit have all decided that riffing off of Deftones' musical blueprint is the way to go (Loathe, Thornhill, Boston Manor, Fleshwater, Moodring and many others send their regards). And yet, even with their newfound wings on Rare and 2020's excellent and even more dream-pop influenced Somewhere Nowhere, Hundredth have felt like little more than an occasional blip on the musical radar, with minimal amounts of touring and social media presence in the wake of these albums.

In this sense, 2025's Faded Splendor feels like a bit of an anomaly. At only 10 tracks and 34 minutes, it's a far leaner offering with much of the fat from Somewhere Nowhere having been all but trimmed entirely. It also feels like less of a continuation of the band's sound and instead opts to position itself just about right in the middle of Rare and SN. Perhaps most notably is the vocal performance of Chadwick Johnson, which has been subjected to far less layering and post-production here and emanate a much clearer tonality throughout. You'd also be forgiven if the cadence in his vocals on tracks like singles "Darkside" and "Waste" bring to mind none other than Brandon Flowers from The Killers – yet another influence the band proudly wears on their sleeves throughout Faded Splendor. Yet even in spite of their obvious inspirations, Hundredth still sound and feel wholly unique throughout Faded's runtime. The swirling Cyberpunk synthesizers and droning guitars on opener "Curve" sound absolutely heavenly and coalesce in an earworm chorus that's instantly memorable. Subsequent "Big Love" is a razor-sharp continuation of Somewhere Nowhere's occasional indie-rock coating; stripping away some of the synth-passages for a more labored soundscape. Then there's "Glimmer", perhaps Hundredth's most accomplished song to date. Sugar-sweet vocal melodies and a glitchy synth motif gradually spiral into a gargantuan chorus that borders on breathtaking. There’s just something so undeniably slick in how Chadwick and co bounce between plush ballads like “Dazzle” and sizzling, 16th-note hi-hat beats on pulsating rock tunes found in “Blur” and “Blitz”.