It is always a good sign when bands avoid things that discourage you before you even listen to the album, such as: silly artwork, bad band name and cliché song titles. Pheonix Arizona’s Run with the Hunted manages to avoid all these things. The artwork on their debut EP is a simple shot of the map around the area where they come from, their band name is a reference to Chuck Bukowski (I believe, anyway), and their song titles seem to be just random jokes (which I guess could be a cliché, but who’s counting?). While those things don’t directly affect the music, a correlation could be made to the quality of the overall package and that of its contents.

Run with the Hunted’s influences are obviously rooted in metallic hardcore of the past 15 or so years, with Shai Hulud and Suicide File coming to mind most readily. While these aren’t terrible bases to build from by any means, the problem is that there really isn’t any building going on to set RWTH apart. You get all the usual suspects on songs like “Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog” ("Arrested Development" anyone?); the gang vocals, the mid-paced tempo, the melodic guitars behind straightforward shouting, the breakdowns and so on and so forth. If it wasn’t for the occasional sense of urgency, like vocalist Drew’s sigh halfway through the aforementioned tune, there wouldn’t be much potency in the songs at all. Although, I guess emotional outpouring and urgency is a lot of what this is about.

Find Your Way Out, for the most part, deals with loss and searching with an inquisitive, introspective slant. The band helps create a consistent lyrical vibe throughout the album and avoids anything particularly horrendous, but also anything particularly outstanding, aside from the refrain in “Exit Strategy.” Group vocals are almost another instrument altogether that can help give added resonance to ideas and feelings, but one problem with RWTH is they are a bit too gang vocal-happy so it tends to lose that effect.

With better production, cutting down on the gang vocals and stepping out of the template they’ve given themselves, Run with the Hunted could very well make a great hardcore album because all the elements are there for it. Find Your Way Out shows off a band that looks good on paper but the actual results are merely decent.