New England is essentially known all over the country as the mecca for hardcore. Converge, Have Heart, and With Honor are just a few of the multitude of hardcore bands to call the northeast its home at one point or another. Well, add Connecticut's Palehorse to that list, because their brand new EP Secrets Within Secrets is dropping something fierce.

Five tracks is all it takes for Palehorse to quickly establish themselves as a real force to be reckoned with. The spitfire vocals of Vincent Calandra power over the top of the lumbering rhythm section, his extremely commanding presence having strong effect on the music as a whole. The music is relatively standard fare, the songs all hovering between two and three minutes, but it's the band as a whole's demeanor that give things an extra kick. After the intro chugs through its duration, "Mayday" blasts through, all guns blazing. The guitar work is at its quickest, and Calandra sounds positively enraged. The band is at their musical peak here, but the momentum continues throughout the EP, and a lot of the lyrical content is equally impressive;

Cover-ups in a place called Rome, city of gold and holy blood-stained white robes / Corruption fills the halls, a blindfolded public eye / Secrets within secrets, they illuminate the ones behind / Cover-ups in your cities and towns, spit on the cross our nation was found / … / The freemasons the one behind, bleeding treason and promoting lies / Secrets within secrets, your leaders are the ones behind.

It's not often a band like this strays outside the lyrical themes of brotherhood and vengeance, so this is more than a welcome change. There are varied themes explored on the album, all of which stray away from traditional tough guy fare. The members of this band may keep with the traditional, straightforward sounds of the genre, but they do it in the least cliché, most enjoyable way possible.

A straightforward hardcore effort with that little bit extra to offer, New England strikes again.