One Step Closer Announce New Album Zero: Hear Two Tracks

A few years ago, the young Wilkes-Barre band One Step Closer came out sprinting with a fiery, sincere form of melodic hardcore that recalled past eras without ever putting quotation marks around what they were doing. They were a Stereogum Band To Watch back in 2021, and then they moved in a more expansive direction on their 2024 sophomore album All You Embrace. After dropping the one-off single "Jinx" last year, One Step Closer are ready to announce a whole new album called Zero.One Step Closer recorded Zero with Drug Chuch/Drain collaborator Jon Markson, a producer who knows how to combine hardcore crunch with big, searing hooks. The band says that they found the record's sound by digging into what they call "older brother muisc," and a press release lists off a fun set of inspirations: "printing Mapquest directions to a VFW show, music video blocks on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, burned CDs with songs ripped from MySpace, and jumping a fence to sneak into Warped Tour in 2005."With the album announcement, One Step Closer have shared two new songs, doing a double video for both of them. "Blue Hour" starts out slow and meditative and builds to en extremely satisfying fiery conclusio...