One Win Choice

There ain't a whole lot to say about One Win Choice that hasn't already been said about plenty of other political melodic hardcore bands. While their new 7"/EP Define/Redefine doesn't exactly advance the genre, it hardly sets it back, either.

"Failure to Quit" gets things off to a solid start, the snarling vocals of Dan Kloza remaining at the forefront while the music behind him is the sort of driving, anthemic punk-tinged hardcore we've all heard many times from many other bands. It's solid enough to ignore its obvious and easily pigeonholable sound, though. "Versus Goliath" is pretty visceral, thanks in large part to the impressive, heavy-but-hardly-metal guitar work. Background vocals and some well-placed "whoa"s carry the brief "Under Quarantine," perhaps the best song here despite its 1:23 running time.

Those three songs make up the 7" portion of Define/Redefine, but there are two other tracks exclusive to the digital download: "Where My Allegiance Lies" features some solid guitar noodling and is deceptively catchy, while "Every Heart" is a longer, drum-less track that's heavy on passion and substance, dictated by group vocals. I guess only an acoustic song would've been more cliché as a 'closer', but it's not bad. It's pretty apparent that the three best songs of this lot made the 7", though.

Again, there's nothing extremely groundbreaking here, but still a pretty solid look into what this Toms River, New Jersey quintet is all about.