Back when this was released in late 1993, After Taste was considered a fairly severe left turn by fans who’d grown up on this Louisville hardcore band’s first two albums, 1990’s In a Time of Hate and 1992’s landmark Catharsis.
While Catharsis showed progress from the debut in terms of the songwriting and production, it was still a fairly straightforward hardcore punk album, albeit one with more melody and more thoughtful lyrics than many of their peers. On After Taste, they decided to go (consciously or not) the “post-hardcore” route, taking influence from diverse sources ranging from I Against I era Bad Brains or late ’80s 7 Seconds and having a sound more in line with contemporary groups like Quicksand, Sunny Day Real Estate, Orange 9mm and the like. “Keating” sounds so much like contemporary New Jersey legends Lifetime, in fact, that it could’ve fit in easily on their 1993 debut LP Backgroundor even their breakthrough 1994 7” Tinnitus.
In addition, the lyrics took on a more personal, less political tone, also reflective of the changes they and many other long-running bands, as well as the hardcore scene in general, were going through at the time as the tidal wave of what is now called emo (Midwest and otherwise), skramz, screamo, and other subgenres were just around the corner. Though, back then it was just hardcore and maybe emo, and if so, this album (the last full-length statement Endpoint has made to date) definitely pointed (see what I did there?) in the latter direction.
As a nice addition, this deluxe reissue includes a bonus 12”, their 1995 swan song The Last Record, originally released as a 10” on Doghouse (who also originally released this LP and Catharsisas well as a 1993 7”.
