Terminal is one of those deep cuts that I’ve forgotten about as the years have gone by. It’s been about 20 years since I’ve even thought about them, let alone listened to them. By happenstance I just stumbled upon them a few months ago and ended up taking a spin of their lone album 2005’s How The Lonely Keep.
Which is a shame because even though they have a measly 3,090 monthly listeners on Spotify, this is an absolutely banger of a post-hardcore emo album. I can’t tell you how many times me and my buddies would crank “Wisher” up to 11 and sing along with one of the greatest angsty teen refrains of all-time when lead singer Travis Bryant emphatically declares “Miracles don’t exist in us / We just wish ourselves away”. That line still sends shivers up my spine. It’s hard to describe how hard this hit me as a 16-year old high school kid in the midst of trying to figure out who he was and what he stood for, making wishes for a miracle that probably wasn’t ever going to come. I always say that line as a call to arms– simply just wishing for something doesn’t mean a damn thing until you put in the work to go and get it. Life is something you have to work for.
Those moments are everywhere on this album. In “Dark” when Bryant asks “Are you someone else’s point of view?” before ripping into an earnest guitar solo that tears the walls down, you . Or in “Not All Bad” when Bryant asks “Couldn’t we / All use the company?” in his trademark clean tenor voice that was both breathy and pushed to the limit at the same time.
The guitars are heavy and interesting, the bass and percussion section is on point, the songrwriting is dynamic and varied, and the vocal performance is exemplary in its ability to jump from soft seriousness to emphatic exclamations at a moment’s notice. How The Lonely Keep is moody in all the best ways.
Terminal just got me in a way that was unparalleled at the time and perfectly encapsulated those feelings of youthful hope juxtaposed with with anxiety about growing older and the feeling that everything we feel is relatively insignificant within the grand scheme of human existence. It was hopeful, nihilistic, and realistically contextual all at the same time. It was (and still is) a great reflection of the human condition.
Put another way, this band was f***ing great and it’s a damn shame they never got bigger than they did or put out more music. This is a great post-hardcore emo album that absolutely deserves a second listen for anyone who managed to catch them when they were still together.
Standout Songs: “Wisher”, “Dark”, “Not All Bad”, “City By The Sea”
