Details: One Step Closer signal a sea change with Songs for the Willow. With last year's This Place You Know, the band had already mastered a unique stripe of mournful melodic hardcore informed by eclectic emo influences. But on Songs for the Willow, they've tapped into a dynamic, emotionally powerful, and sonically intricate post-hardcore space inhabited by the charged aura and artistic nuance of landmark early 2010s records like Title Fight's Floral Green and Touché Amoré's Is Survived By. But ultimately, Songs for the Willow moves this sound forward into new territory. While frontman Ryan Savitski explored clean singing on This Place You Know, he expands his vocal repertoire further here, pushing himself to an even wider range of styles and methods, from soaring highs to breathy lows and rousing harmonies. He makes for a spirited lead and consistent presence while guitar work from himself, Ross Thompson and newcomer Colman O'Brien weave sundry, compelling layers, never content to linger on one riff for too long. "All three songs revolve around the problems that touring so much this last year have caused," Savitski says of the thematic melancholy running through the EP. "Losing relationships, losing band members, losing a sense of what this band even means to everyone." Savitski is still grateful for the growth his band experienced-they made memorable appearances on some of hardcore's biggest stages (Sound and Fury, This Is Hardcore, and Outbreak festivals), supported scene staples on tour (Comeback Kid, Drug Church, Terror), and had This Place You Know land on respected publications' Best of 2022 lists (Stereogum, BrooklynVegan). But Savitski also recognizes the sacrifices they made along the way, and that struggle imbues itself in the EP's desperate tone. "I feel like this last year was the first time we've truly felt like a real band, but there were so many issues underlying that it made it hard to enjoy a lot of things." All along, there's an insistent, relentless forcefulness to each performance. After already cementing themselves as the best young band reviving genuine melodic hardcore, One Step Closer have now proven themselves as virtuosos of the impassioned post-hardcore mini-epic.