End of the Line started as a goodbye. Mike Down, who’d been screaming for Amenity and Forced Down through the 80s, was planning to leave hardcore behind, and the idea was a single show: Heroin functioning as his band, Matt Anderson moving from drums to guitar, one final ride. Down kept his word and walked. The rest of them didn’t.That one-off stretched to eight months.

End of the Line existed across the summer of 1991 in San Diego, played a dozen shows, started a label bidding war between Vermiform and Ebullition, recorded most of their album knowing the band wouldn’t survive long enough to promote it, and finished with a September gig alongside Fugazi and Jawbreaker. The record came out into a band-shaped silence and slowly became a cult document of early 90s West Coast hardcore...