Born out of blood, sweat, tears, and do-it-yourself moxy, comes 8KOunt’s first full-length album Cornered. From the modern rock punch of their first single ‘Because I Can’ to radio-ready cuts like ‘The Very Thing’, ‘Insanity Defense’, and ‘Personal’, this collection of tunes hooks in all the right places. The Russ-T Cobb (Avril Lavigne, Bowling For Soup, Butch Walker, Sevendust) and Ron Bennett produced disc bucks the current emo/lo-fi trends and goes for the throat with slick production, proudly displaying the band’s Big Rock branding.

The meat of the disc is solid songwriting, rock and pop sensibilities, and plenty of reasons to throw up your rawk fist. But don’t think this is standard rock fare: electronica slices between tracks, ‘Run’ drops Helmet-like grooves, and ‘One Thing Remains’ shows an acoustic side of the band. Even a casual listen to Cornered gives you the sense that this band is going places - to rock radio, to music television, and if you’re lucky, to a venue in your zip code.