The first track, ‘Take It All’, opens up with a lengthy introduction of guitar interplay and varied riffery before descending into a fairly predictable, but by no means unpleasant, slice of commercial sounding emo-tinged hard rock. They are not dissimilar to Of Allies but lack the same metallic crunch of their counterparts. They do know how to write a hook though, not only here but also on the, er, heartfelt ‘Open Heart’, which has one foot on the other side of the Atlantic with the punk pop vibe of its second riff.

‘No One Else To Blame’ is the poppiest-sounding of the songs, despite the hard-edged riffing, and they seem to be going for an epic feel to the chorus; one eye on getting a bit of airplay maybe? Unfortunately, they tend towards the cliché lyrically, especially on ‘After the Storm’, though it does offer more variety musically and showcases their playing ability with plenty of interaction between the guitars. I like the fact that they let their instruments do the talking on more than one occasion and have the confidence to explore the dynamic of their sound with time changes and instrumental breaks.

On the whole this is a promising debut effort from The Endeavour, and serves to showcase their potential, as an EP should. However, there is a certain familiarity to their sound, though I guess this could also work in their favour if it’s airplay that they are after.

3/5

‘Voyage EP’ by The Endeavour is released on 27th July.

The Endeavour links: Facebook|Twitter

Words by Edward Layland (@EdwardLayland)