Endswell – Keepsake | EP Review
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Thumbs Up Records
I have often wondered if, in my 23 years of life, I would find myself feeling some sense of nostalgia. After all, I’m just a kid who grew up too quickly and never really got the chance to feel like they were a kid. How could I yearn for a simpler time if things were never that simple? It turns out the answer was contained within the new Endswell EP, Keepsake. The moment the first song came on and that sample from Ocarina of Time played, I was transported back to my childhood friend’s basement with its white walls, tattered leather couch, concrete floor, and long-forgotten pool table. Suddenly, I’m sitting there on that concrete floor, blowing on an N64 cartridge, getting ready to transport myself back into Hyrule once again. Although that kid had to grow up and go through this primordial hell we call existence. Endswell takes this feeling of childhood naivety fading into adulthood and bottles it up on their debut EP through percussive and riff-heavy tunes.
For those who aren’t in the know, Endswell is something of a DIY supergroup from Madison, Wisconsin, comprised of guitarist Kyle Kinney (Excuse Me, Who Are You?), bassist Luke Ferkovich (Kule), and guitarist Louie Barlaw (Tiny Voices). Rounding this out, you have drummer Alan Morris (who also mixed and mastered the EP), and centerstage, you have vocalist Maxwell Culver at the heart of this project, delivering screams and emotional wails in equal measure.
Until the release of this EP early on in the summer, Endswell only had one song released: a single mix of “Heart Container,” which both acted as an introduction to the band and as proof of concept for the group while they honed this collection of music. Keepsake is made up of four different tracks, each approaching transitory ideas like growing up, moving on, experiencing loss, and weathering heartbreak. The themes are addressed through a mix of traditional singing and screamed vocals, all layered over intricate guitar parts. The riffs are consistently heavy and, in some ways, almost clash with the lyrics as they offer a danceable counterpoint to some of the harsher themes found in the songwriting. This dissonance creates an interesting conflict as you might find yourself compelled to dance, even as Culver is screaming lyrics like “I just feel like shit.”
As I was listening to Keepsake, I kept finding myself drawn to the drumming, which I would argue is the best part of this EP. Musically, I will admit my knowledge of drum techniques and terminology is limited, but I am a rhythm dork, and I couldn’t help but get caught up again and again in these mesmerizing drum parts.
The EP begins with the title track, and the whole thing kicks off with that aforementioned sample from Ocarina of Time that plays whenever you open a chest in the game. This sample builds and then seamlessly blends as the guitars and drums kick in, and as the fanfare leads to post-hardcore riffage, you can practically see the pit opening. This song explores the theme of not being enough for someone, with the phrase “Keepsake” encapsulating the feeling of being a trinket thrown on a shelf and forgotten until someone cares to remember you. One of the stand-out lines in the song is, “I’m only as nostalgic as you make me / and I break easily.” At some point, we have all fallen in love with someone or something that didn’t give us that same love back, and this song captures that feeling in heartbreaking beauty.
If “Keepsake” is someone trying hard to hold onto something they love, then “Cruise Control” is learning to accept that, at some point, you have to walk away and give up on someone you once loved. The lyrics absolutely lock in on this theme as Culver wails out the lines, “Sometimes the people you know / become strangers you love / become people you wish / you never knew at all.” We are all cursed with forcing ourselves to forget the people we once shared our lives with. Sometimes, we have to watch someone change and become different from the person we initially met, and it hurts. The song handles this nuance very well, with an almost nostalgic feeling baked into the guitars, adding to the dissonance between the music and lyrics.
The penultimate track of the EP is a new rendition of “Heart Container.” The biggest difference between the single mix and the EP version is that there is a stronger sense of production that makes the song fit in better sonically with the rest of the tracks on this release. The mix also features more of a focus on the guitars and puts the vocals a little lower in the mix, which creates a nice wall of noise. It almost feels like Culver is drowning in the sea of sound and loss as he yearns for things to be what they once were. This track exists as the mid-point of the release and quickly grabs the listener’s attention with another Ocarina of Time sample that perfectly sets up the most energetic and angry song on the EP.
The final track, “Spirit Blues,” is an anthem about trying to be better, whether successful or not (and mostly not), knowing that you at least tried. This is the acceptance song that can only come after experiencing all the strife found throughout the preceding tracks. Whether you like it or not, eventually, you have to admit to yourself that you are going to die, and so will the things in your life. At some point, that kid playing those video games on the concrete floor in the basement has to turn off the old CRT and walk upstairs into the real world. Things won’t ever be perfect, and most of the time, they’ll never be what you wanted, and that just has to be okay.
Ben Parker is an emo kid from a small town in Indiana who has spent a little too much time reflecting on life. Ben is a poet and has written about topics ranging from death to addiction to that feeling when you meet someone, and once you part, you realize you’ll never speak again. Ben can be found at @Benyamin_Parker on all social media.
