REVIEW: SINCE 2000 - neverland: [CHAPTER II]
- Mia Gailey
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
There’s a certain kind of ending that feels too clean to be honest, and neverland [CHAPTER II] actively resists that. Instead of closure, it offers something far less comfortable — a sense of continuation disguised as an ending, where growth feels unresolved and reflection borders on relapse. On the final instalment of the neverland arc, SINCE 2000 don’t just revisit the themes introduced in CHAPTER I — they pull them apart, exposing the fractures underneath identity, healing and the illusion of progress.
Released via Easy Life Records, the EP positions itself as the band’s most emotionally and sonically intense work to date, but what stands out isn’t just the weight — it’s the control. There’s a precision to how these ideas are handled, a sense that nothing here is accidental. Where CHAPTER I explored identity as something unstable, this second chapter treats it as something already broken, shaped by memory, trauma and the quiet persistence of unresolved experiences. It’s less about discovering who you are, and more about confronting who you’ve been.
That intent is clear from [prologue II], which opens the record by repurposing fragments from one of the band’s earliest unreleased tracks. It doesn’t land as nostalgia — it feels closer to reprocessing, taking something formative and reframing it through a more self-aware lens. That interplay between past and present feeds directly into Running From My Crimes, where urgent instrumentation underscores lyrics rooted in guilt and avoidance. It’s a track that feels caught between versions of the band, using that tension to its advantage rather than smoothing it out.
Nosferatũ stands as one of the EP’s most fully realised moments. It’s ambitious without overreaching, weaving melody into more intricate arrangements while anchoring itself in a subtle conceptual shift — this isn’t a breakup with someone else, but with a former self. That idea of self-destruction as transformation runs quietly through the record, giving its heavier moments a sense of purpose rather than excess.
That purpose becomes more immediate on SHUDDERING. There’s a rawness here that strips away some of the abstraction, tackling addiction and internal conflict with a directness that feels deliberately unpolished. It’s tense, volatile, and built on release — the kind of track that prioritises impact over refinement without losing its shape. lost_BOYS expands the scope beyond the internal. As one of the band’s earliest demos, its inclusion feels deliberate, shifting the narrative outward to address alienation and the conditions that leave young people vulnerable to radicalisation. What gives it weight is its refusal to judge — instead, it leans into empathy, broadening the EP’s perspective without diluting its core themes.
The intensity peaks with HELLelujah! (feat. Lo Rays), a track that feels deliberately overwhelming. It interrogates the weaponisation of morality and faith with an urgency that matches its scale, while the guest feature amplifies that tension rather than softening it. It’s confrontational without losing focus, pushing the record into its most expansive territory.
By the time FALLout closes the EP, the focus shifts again. It doesn’t resolve what came before — it sits with it. Positioned as an epilogue, it occupies that quiet, uncertain space where healing begins but patterns remain, leaving the ending feeling intentionally incomplete.
As a whole, neverland [CHAPTER II] works less as a conclusion and more as an aftermath. It closes the narrative, but refuses to simplify it, leaning into the discomfort of growth and the reality that change is rarely linear. SINCE 2000 don’t offer resolution — they leave you in the in-between, where the real work happens.
Score: 8/10
neverland: [CHAPTER II] was released on 24th April 2026 via Easy Life Records.
Words: Mia Gailey
Photos: Daniel Blake
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