Some musicians hop on the right trends at the right time and wait for success to find them. But bands like Brooklyn, NY’s Geometers take an opposite approach. Instead of chasing what’s à la mode, they play the music they must; in fact, their brand of post-hardcore follows in the footsteps of bands that defied and redefined their genres decades ago—Engine Down and Small Brown Bike, Thrice and Shiner. Geometers’s self-titled EP, recorded by influential producer J. Robbins, bristles with menacing tension; it’s there on “Title Fight” during the throbbing, turbulent verses; on “On My Own,” whose syncopated rhythm swings beneath singer Kyle Pollard’s howl; and on “Sidearm,” a song that dodges into an ill-lit alley just as it seems most likely to strike. Of course, this approach doesn’t always lead to immediate success, but does provoke something more important: a record as honest as it is powerful.