Following up their work on a four-way split from this past year, San Diego group Slow Draw earlier this week dropped a two-song single, Pessimist, released as a collaboration between Paper Street Cuts, GTG Records, and Rizkan Records, that serves as their first release written and recorded as a full four-piece band.

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Bound/Cured, a new x-ray flexi from Bleach Everything, comes out Jan. 29 through Dark Operative.

"Bound" is streaming online now, the first half of the new release. Brent Eyestone speaks to the band's approach on the new material:

When we made the RFTCC (Rocket from the Crypt Covers) recording last year, it unintentionally helped crack the code of how to blend melodic singing with harsher vocal elements. It always feels jilted and outright comical on my ears whenever Warped Tour-type bands attempt to blend guttural death metal vocals with pop punk choruses. I've always loved the concept of raging verses and anthemic choruses, but there's a very specific, kill-the-Death-Star-type precision involved with striking the right balance between those elements. Killing Joke are masters at it. Boysetsfire was one of the first bands ages ago that planted the seed that it's possible in more hardcore-oriented music. But working on RFTCC made it all finally click for our band... and we were more than happy to open up that new bag of tricks on 'Bound/Cured.' I still remember where I was and how it felt the first time I heard Graham's guitar melody on the chorus of 'Bound.' I instantly knew exactly what the song needed to be and heard the vocal parts just as immediately. It excited me far more than it terrified me, which was previously my default setting toward melodic singing in any band I've ever been in.

The band is also working on a new full-length.