Bonfires - The Way This Ends (EP Review)

Creating a buzz as a band is extremely difficult. It isn't hard to get your music out there. You can pretty much have it available in digital outlets really easily, but it is not the easiest task for the stars to align. Bonfires had really begun to shine after a few releases which saw them shooting up the Bandcamp charts. The band announced they signed with Bad Timing Records. That along with some high profile shows and the band was pretty much on the cusp of becoming a new scene favorite. In my opinion, Bonfires is (or was, it all depends) set to be the biggest of the "new" bands Bad Timing has been working on launching. Something about the band really set them apart. A big part of that was lead vocalist, Zech Pluister. Now here comes the crushing part. When Bad Timing Records and the band surprise dropped their new EP, The Way This Ends, it was also announced that Pluister was exiting the band. The planned CD and vinyl release was cancelled in favor of offering the full EP as a name your price. The band plans to continue on, but there is no doubt in my mind that Pluister's absence on their next batch of songs is either going to make or break them. I was both excited and bummed when I hit play on the new EP. On one hand I had been anticipating this EP and on the other hand this might be the last batch of songs I enjoy from Bonfires. Their future music, sound, and new singer is up in the air, at this point.

One play through of The Way This Ends automatically confirms what I figured about this line-up. They had a great chemistry and vibe and stood out from the pack of upcoming pop/punk/emo groups just enough to be really exciting. Pluister is a large part of that. His vocal ability and the personality he's able to convey on the EP is at the forefront of it. He's a great vocalist for this genre of music and he shows it strongly throughout the EP. His vocals sound pretty powerful and he's able to convey a lot of emotion with his voice. Just listen to a track like "Better Off" to hear it. Pluister belts his lungs out with such nice control and emotional flare that it really just pushes the track up a notch.

This is really good musically, as well. The guitar work on "Under The Water Tower" is great. I love the intro part of the song. The band provides a great backbone and come through with some nice emotional sounding pop/punk. It's easy to see that if you muted Pluister and just listened to the instrumentals that the music is top notch and sounds pretty fantastic. They stick out from the pack without Pluister's vocals on this EP musically, as well. Like I said earlier, though, all the elements coming together create one of the better releases I've heard from this genre this year and I think his vocals just add an extra element to the band that pushes them more towards the top of the pile.

This is a promising EP from Bonfires. I'm really enjoying it. It's a shame that this is the end of the road with this band for Pluister because I think this EP shows that they have some insanely good promise. The band will no doubt have a difficult task in finding his replacement. The most recent Encore Podcast Thomas/Bad Timing Records discussed the band and indicated the guitarist who does back-up vocals might take over full time. That could work out really nicely. I do like his vocals a lot on the EP. Hopefully that works out or they can find someone who tackles the genre as well as Pluister because the band is clearly talented songwriting wise. If not, you'll always have this EP as a last gift from the band and the ghost of what could have been. The Way This Ends is a pretty great EP worth more than a few listens and I'd highly recommend checking it out.