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About a year ago I reviewed these Boston hardcore-heads’ debut EP, Death and the Company You Keep, impressed with the group’s ability to keep it real in a scene that’s become completely fake. Thankfully, not much has changed on this, the 17 minute “full-length”, and the group sound just as pissed off as they ever have. If you thought that Boston was all Mighty Mighty or Dropkick, you’d better think again.

Symmetry Lost packs all the crushing blows of its predecessor, plus more. As an unsigned band, To The Wolves took advantage of their situation with some serious DIY ethics. Entirely self-produced, mixed, mastered, and designed, this is the product of full artistic control on the band’s part, with no money-driven corporate scheming (“hmm, mmkay, breakdown here, melodic singing part here, how’re we doing on that acoustic instrumental exactly halfway through the album?”) From an artistic standpoint alone, this is the way that things ought to be done.

From a musical standpoint, To The Wolves maintain their firm grip on intense, tuned-down-to-Z grooves, with monster vocals that never fall into self-parody, but instead genuinely provoke fear. Vocalist Nick Nardelli’s howling certainly seems to have been informed by the likes of Today Is The Day, while the rest of the band pay homage to groups like Converge (see the rhythmic shape-shifter “Infected” – a strong contender for the album’s best track.) Creepy segues glue tracks together in the style of Majority Rule’s Interviews with David Frost, and if you’ve ever read anything I’ve written before, you know that anything with a bit of Majority Rule scores major points. For those of us truly disheartened by the industry’s latest excuse for hardcore music, all hope is not yet lost.