Sometimes great bands fly under the radar for so long that they eventually fizzle out and give up. The same old routine of playing tiny clubs for few people, traveling 10 hours to discover a show has been canceled, or just the difficulty in releasing a new record can be troubling. Giving Chase have been treading this tightrope for a few years, but you wouldn't be able to tell any wear and tear to their spirits based on their new full-length, A Cheap Print of a Masterpiece.

Based out of Philadelphia, PA, a town rich in the fine art of melodic hardcore, Giving Chase add a fresh and energetic aspect to the genre. Trading off among smooth ballads and gruff shout-alongs, call-and-answers and some screaming, everything mixes impressively in a high pace and even high display of overall energy and passion. Tracks like "The Grand Escape" provide the mid-tempo to blazing tempo changes, complete with some anthemic choruses, whereas "I Am the Ostrich" starts rather bouncy with smoothly soft vocals, only to explode into a fist-pumping, scream-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-along blend of aggression and melody.

A Cheap Print truly hits its mark with the songs "Wrecked Angle" and "While Nero Played." Both display the band at their most potent and focused moments of the record, finely blending the fine line between symphonic and assailing, a task that at many times the band comes to close to perfecting, yet finally hit the nail on head here.

For anyone that loves hardcore, especially the more sonorous side of it, Giving Chase are the perfect example of how to make a mark in a genre that can at so many times seem "overdone" or "played out." With few flaws, A Cheap Print of a Masterpiece is an album more people need to hear. If anything, it serves as a great starting place for a band with limitless potential if they keep their sound focused on their obvious strengths.

Stream A Cheap Print of a Masterpiece at the Giving Chase Punknews profile