Michale Kretzmer (guitar/keys/vocals), Brian Dobrolsky (guitar), Patrick McGee (bass) and James Cathers (drums) came together to create Respond in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Formed under the notion of being "interesting and ground-breaking but not pretentious, and catchy without being cookie-cutter and boring," the band's debut release is an ambitious set of songs bound to satisfy listeners.

Hardly had 'The Antagonist, The Interpreter' begun when I started to understand what they meant with their statement. Interesting and catchy? Check. Pretentious or boring? I wouldn't say so. Ground-breaking is a bit of a stretch though, as this could fall under the category of “progressive post-emo” (for those that like genre-lizing). A major factor of Respond's sound is the industrious craftiness of the guitars, which refuse to idle. At very few points are the two guitarists playing the same part, and most of the riffs are of the nimble-fingered noodling variety that remind me of Circa Survive, flitting fret-to-fret across the neck during verses, and drenched in the intensely climatic wail of delay. The drums and bass follow suit, creating special emphasis in the start-stops and odd timings of parts in the song. Kretzmer's vocals are bold and his ingenious melodies make are unique enough after decades of rock music to make one think “has this really not been done before?”. When instrumental climax arrives, he has no problem keeping up, even if it means having to yell.

There is never a dull moment in these 21 minutes. When the guitars do eventually stop to regain their energy, spacious atmosphere surrounds the listener, and when there is a break, it slams back in full force a second or two later. The production on the EP is excellent, though more bottom-end would have brought it to the max. Everything is crystal clear and discernible, a quality I find of great importance to recordings, but few new bands debut with. I'd recommend this EP for fans of Damiera, Circa Survive, The Dear Hunter or YouInSeries.