Wolves at Bay- The Night A Forest Grew EP

Wolves At Bay, the newest addition to Animal Style Records, is a great progressive emo/hardcore group from Hamden, Connecticut. Consisting of Will Hayes (guitar, vox), Mat Smith (bass), Kevin Rodriguez (guitar), and Chris Durso (drums), they have a great new sound coming from old roots. This is one of those bands I have troubles putting my finger down on a RIYL for you guys, but those are the best groups. However, they're clearly influenced by the 90s, punk music, and other awesome stuff. This was released on August 8th, and gives us a little taste before their full length coming this fall.

The first of the three tracks is "Strangers In My Basement." It starts off really strong with an intense beat and badass guitar melodies. Will's voice is gruff and I liked it from the start- it's a great sound put together with the music. It's got a very melodic pattern, but in a catchy way, not a douche-esque "Watch me play scales over and over again" way. It's soft- hardcore, if you can follow me there. The drums at the end of this track make me smile.

"Fought This Through" has such a badass intro. If I was defeating dragons, or on a drug-deal-gone-wrong chase, or just brushing my teeth in the morning, I would want to do it to the intro to this song. I enjoy the rest of the song too, by the way. Especially the ending. It shows some awesome dynamics, and I get really excited about true musicianship in modern music.

"Anything At All" pretty much finishes off the EP on a good note. It's probably my favorite, to be honest.

You should probably check out Wolves At Bay. I'm excited to see what they come up with this fall on their full length- you should be watching, too.

This album is a digital release only on Animal Style's bandcamp page. It's a name-your-own-price download, so you can get it for free... But you should probably throw the boys a few bucks.

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-Bear