Baltimore’s Praise specialize in a kind of heartfelt, sincere melodic hardcore, evoking the music that came out of Washington, DC in the ’80s and ’90s. They’re really good at it, too. Members of Praise have played in bands like Have Heart, Mindset, Champion, Give, and Protester, and their regular drummer is Daniel Fang from Turnstile. In 2022, Praise broke a six-year silence with the release of their excellent album All In A Dream. Today, they’ve followed it with a powerful new three-song EP.

Praise’s members now live all over the country, which makes band activities tough, but they came together to record the new EP Coming Up For Air with engineer Matt Redenbo. Daniel Fang didn’t play on this EP; Slow Fire Pistol’s Blake Hall handled the drums instead. Pale Green Stars’ Haley Butters sings backup on the rousing final track “Chasing Colors,” and the whole thing makes for an emotionally satisfying ride. Here’s what guitarist Anthony Dye says about the record:

With All In A Dream, we really took our time and were super meticulous about details. We also used all of the resources of the studio to make things a little more layered and intricate.

On the new EP, we wanted to challenge that approach, and make something that felt more natural, like something that flowed more easily from the members of the band playing together in a room.

Stream the new EP below.

The Coming Up For Air EP is out now on Revelation Records. Check out our 2022 interview with Praise here.