🚛 - Pre-Order due to ship February 19th 2027
When you find yourself at a One Step Closer show, there’s no telling what could happen. There might be a skate competition with a mosh pit at the center of the half-pipe. In fact, guitarist Ross Thompson might end up on a skateboard, and after a botched heelflip he could jump off of a speaker into that mosh pit, all while still playing guitar. Or maybe the drummer of an opening band will start shooting roman candles at vocalist Ryan Savitski while he’s posi-jumping through the air. Or the cops might come to shut everything down, returning to their cruiser to find a fresh OSC tag on the driver-side door. The possibilities are endless and the only thing you know for sure is that the band will be leaving it all on stage, pouring their guts out through some of the most emotionally-charged hardcore imaginable, regardless of whatever freewheeling chaos is happening around them. That’s the core spirit of One Step Closer–an uncrushable drive to create moments, to feel all of the bad and the good, to take the hard times and turn them into something cathartic, to not just let life pass by unnoticed–and it’s that ethos that rushes through their new album, ZERO.
One Step Closer started a decade ago in Wilkes Barre, coming from the same musically fertile ground that bore Tigers Jaw, Title Fight, and more. Their 2019 EP From Me To You established them as a new voice in hardcore, with co-signs coming in the form of tours with Have Heart and Turnstile, and soon after they released This Place You Know, a mighty and melancholic debut LP that could best be described as “a bildungsroman you can mosh to.” OSC toured relentlessly and poured that experience into 2024’s All You Embrace, blending in more melody and further broadening the scope of what the band was capable of. Their creative force expanded beyond the songs as well with OSC continually pushing the envelope with unique merch items including skateboards, fingerboards, jean shorts, parkas, and even cereal boxes, crafting a world around the band where fun and sensitivity don’t need to be mutually exclusive.
Through it all One Step Closer have been growing not only as a band but also as people, and the band has served as a living document of its members coming of age and navigating the transition from youth to adulthood. Now ZERO seems to harness all of that time and accrued experience into One Step Closer’s most definitive work to date. Recorded by longtime collaborator Jon Markson (Drug Church, The Story So Far, Koyo) the album has all of the heart-on-sleeve lyricism and visceral energy of prior releases, but feels even more vulnerable and honest than ever before. “Every record OSC feels very time and place of what’s going on in our lives but we’re really trying to put a piece of ourselves into everything we do surrounding this record,” explains Savitski, admitting, “a lot of this record is about feeling hopeless.”
Sentimentality is built into every One Step Closer song–it’s what elevates their music and makes hundreds of people climb over one another to grab the mic and sing along at festivals like Sound & Fury and Outbreak–but there’s a palpable sadness that sits at the heart of ZERO. “This may have been the hardest year for us, and that’s reflected in the songs” says Savitski. “There’s so much desperation on this record but I think people can relate to that–these songs will always mean something different to me than everyone else, no one is living the same exact experiences, but I want people to take these songs and mold them to fit their own.”
But of course the magic of OSC is their ability to take those darker feelings and mold them into music that pulls you up off the ground. On ZERO the band found inspiration in what they call “older brother music” – an elastic but fitting phrase meant to deconstruct what makes nostalgic songs so emotionally resonant. While definitions may vary depending on your siblings’ music taste, for Savitski and Thompson this term is inspired by 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–a highly caffeinated, poorly hydrated lifestyle from days long gone. And in much the same way that the previous generation expressed themselves against a backdrop of post-9/11 global crisis, OSC find themselves trying to capture their version of catharsis in a similarly scary and uncertain time. “I think there’s just a general sense of doom that I’m left feeling every time I turn on the TV or look on social media,” Savitski says, “and this record reflects the impact that has on my own mental state.”
The result is a record that’s bursting with life but also has a somber appreciation for its preciousness. This ethos is clearer than ever on standouts like “Blue Hour” and “Was It Ever Enough?”, the two lead-singles from ZERO that have connected music videos both directed by the band. “Blue Hour” begins at dusk–night setting in on a gas station parking lot with a solemn, ominous guitar cycling over a muted drum loop. It’s the boldest sonic step in OSC’s career so far, with Savitski singing more clearly and confidently than ever, despite the lyric’s dour tone: “There’s death in my hands / still I haven’t paid enough” he sings mournfully, just moments before the song explodes into a raucous climax as the band plays on a homemade skate ramp with friends providing DIY pyrotechnics in the form of fireworks and lighter + aerosol can combinations. It’s the perfect mix of “do not try this at home” insanity and hyper earnest emotional outpouring that OSC excel at. Then the sun rises on Wilkes Barre and “Was It Ever Enough?” kicks off with circle-pit pacing and jagged guitar riffs that eventually break down into a groovy, sing-along outro in classic One Step Closer fashion. The song’s video is the daylit, sleep-deprived counterpart to “Blue Hour’s” eerie night moves, capturing the song’s energy with spraypainting, stagediving and sunburning. Elsewhere there’s “About A Boy,” a fiery statement of purpose featuring vocals from longtime supporter Pat Flynn (Fiddlehead, Have Heart), or “A Fleeting Face” which includes contributions from Knocked Loose’s Isaac Hale, a slower, atmospheric song that shows even more depth for One Step Closer’s ever evolving sound.
It makes sense for a band whose name evokes an eternal, Sisyphean struggle to treat each record as a challenge to not only push themselves farther, always in search of more connection with anyone who will listen.On Zero, One Step Closer strives to challenge themselves and also push their listeners into new places. “Sometimes I listen to a song over and over again because it’s giving me chills or just making me feel a certain emotion. I want people to walk away from this record feeling that way about at least one song– if that happens, I’ll feel like we did something right.”
Tracklist:
1. Numb With Sleep
2. Until You Bloom
3. About a Boy
4. August
5. Blue Hour
6. Write My Wrongs
7. Drowning Skies
8. Was It Ever Enough?
9. A Fleeting Face
10. “For Them”
