"Melodic hardcore in the style that we play isn't the biggest/most hyped thing right now, and we are glad Indy at CoinTossRecords is taking a chance releasing something that is down-tuned and heavy, but just old-school fast hardcore like we grew up on," says Better Days drummer Travis Sheaffer. So, I buried the lede there, but I thought that quote summed up the St. Louis band so perfectly that I had to start this piece off with it.
Yes, Better Days are now signed to CoinTossRecords, a label that has issued recordings by such bands as Mindforce, Edgewise, and This Is Hell, but like Travis said, his group is more steeped in the melodic side of the hardcore spectrum. Travis tells me about some of his band's key influences: "Kill Your Idols, Gorilla Biscuits, Reach the Sky, and Dag Nasty are our biggest influences. Our goal was to write a straight-foward, fast, and fun hardcore release with purposeful lyrics. You don't have to be heavy as fuck to play hard music, and we hope people dig what we're bringing to the table!"
The first fruit of the new union between Better Days and CoinTossRecords will be the Away Team EP, which will arrive in stores this coming summer, but you can take a listen to "Bloodsport," a previously unreleased promo track, below.
Formed in 2010, Better Days is ready to get busy now that they've aligned themselves with the right label. "We were all incredibly excited when Indy from CoinToss got back to us, and said he'd like to release our music. We're all incredibly humbled to be on a label that has put out amazing artists like Mindforce, Discourage, This Is Hell, Out of Body, and Edgewise, to just name a few.. He's been so awesome to us, and helped out big time putting this thing together."
In addition to the Away Team EP, Better Days will also be appearing on an upcoming 14-band 7" compilation on Encapsulated Records which will feature such groups as Bruiser Queen, Hell Night, and Fister. The compilation is available for pre-order starting today, May 1.
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