Recommended if you like: Title Fight, Balance & Composure, Turnover, Basement

Richmond VA band BOXER has released their first official extended-play record, “Undertow.” The album features five tracks making up approximately 13 minutes worth of listening time. Each of the members perform with verve and measured aggression on this latter-day hardcore record. The engineering is expert and does not fall victim to over-production, a rarity in this era of the digital studio. This is exceptionally fortunate for fans of hardcore music, too, because “Undertow” features some of the most legitimate hardcore since Quicksand.

BOXER’s sound lies somewhere between Lifetime and Hot Water Music. Their powerful guitars command brightly distorted, driving rhythms interspersed with heartfelt, clean-channel picking. Their vocalists pitch-scream over this wall of sound in raw, genuine tones indicative of the 1990s emotional hardcore tradition, true to the style that made bands like Sense Field, Sunny Day Real Estate, and the Promise Ring legends of the late hardcore scene.

Veteran listeners may feel distrustful of comparisons linking modern hardcore to bygone acts like Sunny Day, or even consider such suggestions blasphemous, but BOXER has everything the Revelation Records performers had in spades, without sounding derivative. Stewart Jester and Grayson Wallace play guitar with torrential violence, their leads unadorned and spare. Between strums they provide vocals that compliment one another like glittering light on broken glass, one clear and melodic, the other grating and gravelly. Bassist Dewey Zei makes a harmonic walk of his basslines and marries seamlessly the roaring guitars to Ian Hurdle’s percussion. Hurdle’s drums go snap-smash and crack-crash in jazz-precision time with pounding, warlike intensity.

BOXER describe being in a punk/hardcore band from Richmond as a double-edged sword. “On one hand,” they write, “you are following in the footsteps of legendary acts like Avail, Strike Anywhere, and Government Warning, but on the other hand, you’re constantly trying to stand out musically in a city brimming with spectacular artists.” BOXER has nothing to fear from this, however. Among titans of the hardcore movement, they don’t just fit in – they stand out, stand tall, and stride like giants.

Praise for "Undertow":
★★★★☆ from Punknews.org
"Undertow is a stampede through five tracks of fast, passionate punk rock lasting a mere 13 minutes. What a great 13 minutes, though."

★★★★☆ from Modern-vinyl.com
"At only 13 minutes, the debut release from Boxer wastes no time in proving its potential. Using heavy yet catchy musicianship, along with dual vocals, the band creates an effective punk rock and hardcore combination. Undertow serves as a solid debut for not only the band, but Reveille Records, as well. Together, they have put out a record that is worth the purchase, and I for one, can’t wait to see what is next from both parties."

3.5 (Great) from Sputnik Music
"The five tracks combine pop punk, emo, and alternative music in a fashion similar to Deja Entendu-era Brand New, but with an edge comparable to contemporary groups such as Title Fight or Such Gold."

Recommended if you like: Brand New, Misser, Balance & Composure, Seahaven, Make Do and Mend

Eagle Mountain, UT's Captives will be heading out soon for a Winter tour in support of their debut EP My Eyes Are Open. Reveille Records will be releasing the digital EP on November 13, 2012 everywhere digital downloads are available for purchase including: iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon MP3. To those eager to hear the new material, the band is currently offering a full album stream online - listen below!

On Captives' debut EP these homegrown boys from Utah successfully meld post-hardcore with alternative rock while even throwing in a little old school Brand New-era emo. My Eyes Are Open is what radio stations would be playing if they actually had an ear for music. While listening it's easy to pick up on their rock roots, but the further into a track you get the more layers start to unfold. A lulling baseline might kickstart a song, but by its end emotionally draining vocals are being shouted, eclipsing your first impression and morphing it into an almost transcendental experience of pain and whirling guitar riffs. This album is a deeply emotional journey that will move the listener. It'll pick you up one moment, make you want to cry the next, and then leave you with a sense of hope for the future.