MΩTHER, Dragged Out To Sea and Exhausted bring heavy music to The Den in Sioux Falls
Fargo and hometown bands range through thrash, screamo, noise rock, progressive metal
Exhausted opens with nothing to prove, plenty to announce
Exhausted could have headlined this show and nobody in the room would have needed a lawyer to argue the case.
The Sioux Falls five-piece plays groove/thrash metal with enough crossover punch to keep the songs moving like thrown furniture. Their 2024 EP, “What’s It Gonna Be?” lays out the core ingredients quickly: old-school aggression, modern groove, hardcore bite and lyrics that treat burnout less like a mood and more like a diagnosis. The songs move with the posture of a band that understands heaviness is not only about volume. It is about weight, timing and where the riff lands when the room braces for impact.
Live, they were super consistent, and that consistency became the hook. The riffs did not wander around. They landed heavy, direct and repeatable. There is a difference between heaviness and weight, and Exhausted had weight. Their songs moved with purpose, not just volume. The band knew where the floor was and kept stomping on it.
That is where their name starts to become funny in the driest possible way. Exhausted do not sound tired. They sound like people who have reached the final stage of being tired, where the only thing left is momentum. The EP’s title track, “What’s It Gonna Be?” stretches toward social fatigue, apathy, polarization and the choice between avoidance and change. On stage, that frustration became physical.
The guitars carried the night’s sharpest immediate attack, and the rhythm section gave the whole thing enough muscle to fill the room. It was not flashy in the peacock sense.
There was also some future-facing news in the room. Exhausted mentioned Four Winds and a new EP coming June 26. That is the kind of detail worth circling in ink.
