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One Step Closer

This Place You Know

Written by: PP on 20/12/2021 15:57:22

"Pringle Street" is one of the hardcore anthems of the year. Its high-flying, soaring melodies coupled with scratchy cleans, its lofty guitars, breakdowns, and lingering melodies to boot highlight everything that was perfect about a band like Bane. Except this isn't Bane, but the lead single from a brand new melodic hardcore punk outfit, One Step Closer from Pennsylvania. Their debut album "This Place You Know" has been turning heads left and right on the hardcore scene, and here's why.

With influences ranging from Comeback Kid, Verse, Have Heart, and arguably The Ghost Inside, you can pinpoint almost exactly where One Step Closer is situated soundscape-wise. They sport a brand of fiery hardcore punk where words like passionate and urgency seem appropriate in the context of their songs, which source emotionally-charged anger and display it in the form of coarse, decipherable screams and occasional softly sung cleans in what feels like an incredibly heartfelt display of melodic hardcore at its best.

Through hard-hitting guitars, breakdowns, and plenty of chant-along choruses, they deliver an anthemic and atmospheric version of melodic hardcore that sticks to the genre playbook but does it incredibly well in the process. It's a breakneck speed album that displays a no holds barred approach, resulting in tight, perfectly executed cuts that leave you wanting for more. And while there's room for improvement, it's an incredibly exciting debut album that suggests One Step Closer will be one of the key bands in hardcore during this decade. Friends, this is how Comeback Kid sounded on an album like "Broadcasting..." before exploding into arguably the best current band in the genre on "Symptoms + Cures" a few short years later.

Download: Pringle Street, Leave Me Behind, As The City Sleeps, I Feel So
For the fans of: Bane, Comeback Kid, The Ghost Inside, Verse, Have Heart
Listen: Bandcamp

Release date 24.09.2021
Run For Cover Records