Photo by Spencer Chamberlain

If leap years only come around every four years, then by these page’s estimate, One Step Closer are making them count in their fast growth as artists since their 2021 debut album These Place You Know alongside last year’s standout Songs for the Willows EP changed the shape of the melodic hardcore scene. The Wilkes-Barre four-piece’s spurt is fully visible in sound with their lead single from their forthcoming sophomore follow-up, All You Embrace. Well ahead of the game in their understanding of the collisional intersects between post-hardcore, punk-pop, and big, bolstered alternative rock, the listen screams out to the masses with an emotive anguish on a widescreen scale, ensuring it’s heard by those who need to. “So this time I’ll just standby / And watch as the months go by / When you find out I’m not really gone,” vocalist Ryan Savitski sings. It may be an anthem for the broken, but surely not alone in that feeling.

Directed by: Derek Rathburn & One Step Closer

One Step Closer’s All You Embrace will be released May 17th on Run for Cover Records.