Look down the list of Endzweck’s albums and you will find a reading list: A Farewell to Arms, The Grapes of Wrath, Naked and the Dead, Ulysses. This is a hardcore band that takes its titles from the twentieth-century novel.
The Band
Endzweck formed in Tokyo in 1997. For its first two years it was called CABLE. It changed the name in 1999, after learning that an American band was already using it. The new name is German and means something like “final purpose.”
The lineup is Takashi Uesugi on vocals, Hirohisa Yamaguchi and Atsushi Oku on guitar, Yoshinori Yamaguchi on bass and Akifumi Mochizuki on drums.
The Records
The first release under the new name, We Are Not Pessimistic, came out in 1999. The novels followed: A Farewell to Arms in 2002, The Grapes of Wrath in 2006, Naked and the Dead in 2007 and Ulysses in 2009. Between 2012 and 2014 the band released a trilogy of seven-inch singles.
The Travel
What stands out in the band’s history is how early it went abroad, and how often. Endzweck toured South Korea in 1999, the year of its first record. It went back to Korea and on to Hong Kong in 2000. In 2001 it toured the west coast of the United States, on a trip disrupted by the September 11 attacks. A second American tour followed in 2005, and in 2008 the band toured Europe and played the Belgian hardcore festival Ieperfest.
Along the way it has shared stages with American hardcore bands including Shai Hulud, Snapcase, Unbroken and Strongarm.
Most of this was years before streaming made it easy for a Japanese band to be heard overseas.
The Medicine Cabinet
The band has not stopped. In April 2025 it released a single with two songs, “Lorazepam” and “Sertraline.” On 22 September 2025 came another, “Valproate” and “Aripiprazole.”
All four titles are the names of drugs used in psychiatry. It is a long way from Hemingway and Steinbeck.
Why It Matters
Nearly thirty years in, with the same name since 1999, Endzweck is one of the long threads in Tokyo hardcore.
Start with Ulysses, then “Valproate.”
