Endwell

Homeland Insecurity (2006)

Jordan Rogowski

[insert tired rant about Victory Records Brian's deleting to avoid hostility, even though I (somewhat sadly) agree about Spitalfield releasing Victory's best album of 2006]

…Which leads me to Endwell, and the beacon of creativity that is Homeland Insecurity. Oh boy. Listen, if you're going to go with an album name like that, for the sake of your own integrity, you should probably take some sort of political stance in the music. I know not every band who enters the political arena does so intelligently, but it's at least an attempt, and with songs like "Single and Loving It," I'd have rather seen them not try at all.

You push my buttons and open these scars, just to watch me bleed / What I've already bled a thousand times before, agonizing you make me scream and shout / … / I'm just a bruised and broken heart, but the memories you left are of a girl who's lost and broken.

Some fine political rhetoric if I've ever seen it. You may have noticed I've neglected to mention what this band really sounds like so far, and if that lyrical excerpt didn't make it crystal clear let me spell it out for you -- t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e.

There's no two ways about this; save for some decent guitar solos, the most interesting part of this sing/scream snooze fest is when it ends. Nothing works here, and I did give it ample opportunity. The screamed vocals are strong, but sound forced and often out of place with how clunky the riffage is, and the contrived singing parts really do nothing to help matters. It may drown out other aspects of the instrumentation for a short amount of time, but before long, those boring chord progressions and lackluster song structures are back. Painfully formulaic, there's only two tracks that aren't between the three and four-minute marks. Even then, their one opportunity to set at least some parts of the record apart, they fail. "Whine and Dine" includes some random gang vocals sprinkled throughout, but it's not enough to quell the overwhelmingly mundane air given off by the band.

[Reversal of Man quote, go find it. Let's just say this review does not end well.]