One Step Closer - All You Embrace - VINYL LP

It would be easy to pigeonhole Footballhead's unapologetically-buttrock-inspired record Weight of The Truth as simple nostalgia bait. Why wouldn't millennials lust for the days of Halo and energy drinks in carpeted basements they're not convinced they'll ever be able to afford for themselves? Beyond that, why would the zoomers that now intently follow not try and chase the high of hyperreality in a bygone world that looks, to them, downright utopian when compared to the present?What sets Footballhead's capital-R Rock sound apart from contemporaries is - in addition to just sounding better - a desire and an ability to thread the needle between paying homage to a quasi-idyllic past and pursuing an earnest future. Footballhead wears their 2000s-era influences on their waffle-knit longsleeves, with power chord drives and pummeling choruses, all sequenced together like the teeth of a skeleton key able to unlock core memories for people who've either been there or people who simply wonder what being there was like. Both the anthems and ballads on Weight of The Truth are waxed and polished to perfection like the lip of a favored skatepark ledge.But underlying all that, even more impressively, is a grit and substance derived from years spent in the Chicago DIY scene, exposing themselves to different styles and influences equally out of necessity as out of interest. It bleeds through on every track. You can bullshit your way into a vibe but, as the band shows on any number of recent releases, including singles off their upcoming second LP you can't fake heart. With an ear to the past but an eye to the present, Footballhead invites you to remember what it meant to give a S**t back when the world felt simpler - and what it might feel like to do so again.

One Step Closer signal a sea change with Songs for theWillow. With last year's This Place You Know, the bandhad already mastered a unique stripe of mournful melodichardcore informed by eclectic emo influences. But onSongs for the Willow, they've tapped into a dynamic,emotionally powerful, and sonically intricate post-hardcorespace inhabited by the charged aura and artistic nuance oflandmark early 2010s records like Title Fight's Floral Greenand Touché Amoré's Is Survived By. But ultimately, Songs forthe Willow moves this sound forward into new territory.While frontman Ryan Savitski explored clean singing on ThisPlace You Know, he expands his vocal repertoire furtherhere, pushing himself to an even wider range of styles andmethods, from soaring highs to breathy lows and rousingharmonies. He makes for a spirited lead and consistentpresence while guitar work from himself, Ross Thompsonand newcomer Colman O'Brien weave sundry, compellinglayers, never content to linger on one riff for too long.InchAll three songs revolve around the problems that touringso much this last year have caused,Inch Savitski says ofthe thematic melancholy running through the EP. InchLosingrelationships, losing band members, losing a sense ofwhat this band even means to everyone.Inch Savitski is stillgrateful for the growth his band experienced-they madememorable appearances on some of hardcore's biggeststages (Sound and Fury, This Is Hardcore, and Outbreakfestivals), supported scene staples on tour (Comeback Kid,Drug Church, Terror), and had This Place You Know landon respected publications' Best of 2022 lists (Stereogum,BrooklynVegan). But Savitski also recognizes the sacrificesthey made along the way, and that struggle imbues itself inthe EP's desperate tone. InchI feel like this last year was the firsttime we've truly felt like a real band, but there were so manyissues underlying that it made i

For Wilkes-Barre's One Step Closer - the concept of home is complicated. InchI've never felt so distant in my life,Inch vocalist Ryan Savitski screams on the lead single InchPringle Street,Inch a place in his hometown that binds the album's lyrics to both a precise location and feeling of displacement. On their first ever full-length album and debut for Run For Cover This Place You Know, the band offers a modern coming-of-age story about growing up and grasping both the known and the unknown. One Step Closer started in 2016 and in their short five years, Savitski, along with drummer Tommy Norton, bassist Brian Talipan and guitarists Ross Thompson & Grady Allen have come into their own as a modern hardcore mainstay. Their 2019 EP 'From Me To You' countered existing trends in exchange for a more melodic sound in the vein of bands like Turning Point and Title Fight. They went on to open for Have Heart at the band's now legendary reunion shows that summer, and joined bands like Knuckle Puck and Turnstile on tour before pausing to write their debut album.This Place You Know grapples with the weight of themes like isolation, depression, and loss - all amplified by driving bass lines, emphatic guitar riffs and unwavering drumming performed by the band. From the first moments of album opener InchI Feel So,Inch the stakes are made clear by the anchoring lyric 'this place you know, sometimes it hides the truth and let's people goInch - One Step Closer is attempting to resolve the unresolvable anguish of moving on from everything you once knew.