Endeavor - Constructive Semantics (1997)

Endeavor were active during the pinnacle years of American metalcore, when bands such as Morning Again and Trustkill label-mates Harvest were fusing a hardcore aesthetic with riffs copped from Metallica and Slayer thereby introducing suburban kids such as myself, many of whom had grown up on ska and punk, to harder-edged, more 'extreme' genres of music, and eventually to metal itself.  Endeavor maintained a strong hardcore feel to all of their music and though they kept company with the more metal-leaning hardcore acts they always, in my mind at least, stood apart. Their lyrics were both political and personal and the band's anger and sincerity shines through at all times:


"Kill Traitors: an ideology. A standard by which to breathe within the machine without a mind. Patriotism defined as a passive reaction to the inexcusable."


Maybe you'll care more if you know that vocalist Mike Olender went on to form Burnt by the Sun.

DL