One Step Closer is an American straight edge hardcore punk band from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The band is currently signed to Run for Cover Records. The band was one of Stereogum's "Bands To Watch" The band's debut album, This Place You Know, was released in 2021 to positive reviews. BrooklynVegan calls them "one of the most exciting new bands in hardcore".
One Step Closer's earliest music was a part of the youth crew revival of the 2010s, with music largley inspired by Turning Point.
By the 2020s, they had shifted their sound towards melodic hardcore. Their influences were Turning Point, Inside Out, Title Fight, Blink-182, Green Day, Have Heart, Bane, Sunny Day Real Estate, the Get-Up Kids, Box Car Racer, the Cure and Mineral. Upset Magazine writer Rob Mair described their music of this era as merging " with youth crew passion and late 90s melodic hardcore approachability to create a sound inspired by hardcore's past but beholden to no single scene." At this time, they made use of elements of indie rock, post-hardcore and shoegaze.
On All You Embrace (2024), they shifted their sound towards emo grunge and emo. At this time, their influences were Basement, Title Fight, Deftones, Jawbreaker, Oasis, True Widow, Failure, the Smashing Pumpkins, Rival Schools, the Cure and Mock Orange. Of this era, Savitzki said that the members "have always been leaning into the emo-core sound. We are finally taking the bigger step into what weâÂÂve been wanting to do for a while now." Punknews noted the album as similar to the emo and screamo artists involved in the wave.
Studio albums