Endpoint (band)

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Endpoint was a hardcore band from Louisville, Kentucky.

Endpoint is/was the largest hardcore band to ever come out of Louisville. No other band could tour the US and Europe, and pull 2000 kids to shows they played in town.

Endpoint was the definitive Midwestern hardcore band throughout most of the '90s, leading the charge for progressive, positive, empowering politics with uplifting, cathartic anthem after anthem championing the oppressed and the free-thinking rights of the individual. Their sound evolved from moshable, singalong-inducing hardcore heavily influenced by the coastal straight-edge scenes and skate rock into moving, more mid-tempo heavy indie core of a more intellectual variety.

The band was formed in the late '80s by Louisville natives Rob Pennington, whose soulful crooning and high pitched wails defined the band's sound, and guitarist Duncan Barlow after the dissolution of their Deathwatch project. In 1989, they released a mini-album on cassette only (later reissued on CD by Doghouse) through the Slamdek label, called If the Spirits Are Willing, that also featured the talents of Rusty Sohm (drums) and Jason Graff (bass).

If The Spirits Are Willing consists of seventeen songs recorded and mixed in three days. The album unleashes the speed and the fury of Enpoint's early hardcore/punk/heavy metal blend. Late in Louisville Hardcore history, bands such as Falling Forward and Enkindel would owe it all to Endpoint before defining their own sound.

Within a year of its release, If The Spirits Are Willing replaced many rivalry bands as the cornerstone of Slamdeks mail orders, and eventually sold more than any other hardcore cassette. Like any other of Slamdeks releases though, it went in and out print constantly. Sometimes being unavailable for months at a time, and would return with completely different packaging. The album on cassette was never carried by any national distributors like some of Slamdeks other releases. As a result, It was essentially available only in Louisville stores, by mail order, Endpoint shows, or in out of town shows that bought directly from Slamdek

It's definitive and most common version is its 1994 reissue compact disc. However, before 1994, it went through many configurations as the cassette versions. The disc contains twenty five songs, documenting Endpoint's first seventeen song cassette, their tracks from the first Endpoint/Sunspring 7", their contribution to the Christmas 1990 tape, and five of the seven songs they recorded in 1988 under the name Deathwatch.

Endpoint's next move after securing a new drummer named Lee Fetzer and second guitarist Chad Castetter, was to release an album called In a Time of Hate through California's Conversion label. The band then signed a deal with a then-fledgling Doghouse Records that would eventually help Endpoint become a centerpiece of the international hardcore scene, and the label grow into the sizeable independent entity it is today. The first album to see the light as a result of this partnership was 1992's monumental Catharsis, arguably the best record of the band's impressive career. The album featured new bassist Kyle Noltemeyer and a collection of the band's most harrowing and heartbreaking yet alternately inspiring songs. That same year, Endpoint released an EP of covers similar to Metallica's Garage Days, paying tribute to Embrace, Rites of Spring, Malignant Growth, and the Misfits -- complete with a cover spoofing Samhain's blood-soaked Initium cover shot. At one point during touring, Split Lip's Curtis Mead filled in on bass. Noltemeyer left the band and was replaced by Indiana native Pat McClimans, with Fetzer's spot being filled by Kyle Crabtree. In 1993, this lineup conceived Aftertaste, a bit of a departure for the band that featured streamlined song writing, slower tempos, less furious posturing and more introspective, poetic lyrics, and even an acoustically driven ballad. The band remained intensely political, however, including a message about women's rights inside the liner notes.

The members of Endpoint also became involved in various other projects, with Barlow and Noltemeyer's Step Down project becoming Guilt and eventually signing to Victory Records, McClimans fronting Scab before sitting in with Falling Forward, in addition to a band called Metroschifter (together with Castetter) and Tramlaw. In 1994, Endpoint decided to call it a day, playing a huge farewell show on December 31 and releasing The Last Record in 1995, a mini-LP that, while not as important as Catharsis, is perhaps their most focused and accomplished work. Barlow and Noltemeyer continued playing with Guilt until that band's dissolution, with Barlow moving on to other projects before reuniting with Pennington in a band called By The Grace Of God, who released records and toured until the year 2000. Both McClimans and Castetter eventually left Metroschifter. McClimans formed a roots rock band called MT Rhoades and His Lonesome Woods Band. Pennington formed a band called Black Widows in 2001.

Members (over the years)

Rob Pennington- Vocals
Duncan Barlow - Guitar
Lee Fetzer - Drums
Rusty Sohm - Drums
Chad Castetter - Guitar
Pat McClimans - Bass

Records

Crain And Deathwatch Split 7" - Slamdek
If The Spirits Are Willing - Slamdek
Endpoint and Sunspring Split 7"- Slamdek
Endpoint And Sunspring Split 7"-Written In Rock: Songs Of Rick Sprinfield - Slamdek
EP2 7" - Break Even Point
Idiots 7"/CD - Doghouse
Every 26 Seconds 7" - Doghouse
Slamdek Discography 1988-1991 - Slamdek
In a Time of Hate
Catharsis - Doghouse
After Taste - Doghouse
The Last Record