Review: One Step Closer - This Place you know
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| Label: Run for Cover Records |
ONE STEP CLOSER were kept in high regard ever since they released their "From me to you"-EP back in 2019. The debut album of the Wilkes-Barre-outfit, dropping two weeks ago, was highly anticipated in the HC-scene and got quite the praise already. Was "This Place you know" worth the wait or is it a case of overestimation within the scene?! To answer this in advance: Yes and no.
The Pennsylvanians are always getting comparisons with the legendary TURNING POINT. And yeah, sure, there are some similarities between the two, also the band itself was manifasting this comparison with their cover of "Broken". In reality "This Place you know" is more in the vein of the 2000s-Hardcore-movement driven forward by Bridge-9 Records or bands like MODERN LIFE IS WAR, DEFEATER, VERSE, RUINER or HAVE HEART. ONE STEP CLOSER's style is alike, combining desperate feelings with flashes of hope, distortion with harmony and traditional HC-moves with more Indie/Emo-like, atmospheric bits. It's not as simple as that, but roughly you can pin them down just like that.
Actually "This Place you know" is nothing new if you were following the Hardcore-scene from 2003 to 2008. Aformentioned year was the pinnacle of this kind of style, when "Aggression", "Travels" and "Songs to scream at the Sun were all being released during the same calendar year. ONE STEP CLOSER move closely around that stlye and they do it in a slick and clever fashion. Bands like VERSE or MODERN LIFE IS WAR weren't able to deliver such a high quality on their respective debut albums.
The quality throughout is what really makes "This Place you know". The guys sound well defined but it's not totally sterile, they still bring some emotion and a little drama. What distinguishes ONE STEP CLOSER from the mentioned big names is their fleshed out melodic edge. They use clean vocals more often and dwell more intensively in those beautiful Emo-like sections of their songs. Listen to a track like "Hereafter", to get a full impression of this charateristic. Besides that the five-piece is too reserved when it comes to breaking the borders of this Mini-Genre, at least for my own taste. The record is polished 'til the farest corner and feels formulaic at times.
"This Place you know" is definitely a record for the "next generation". I can see how ONE STEP CLOSER will blow away some new HC-followers or listeners who have only been around since the 2010s. What they do is more than legit and above all they wrote a comprehensive record without any flaws. But for a guy like me, who was deeply in that kind of style in the 2000s, it's nothing new or groundbreaking. No doubt, I know this place... only the time has changed...
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
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