Christian rock clan Sever Your Ties incorporates the sound you’d expect from a band hailing from Southern California that calls itself  hardcore yet prominently uses keyboards would on their 11-track debut SAFETY IN THE SEA. Injected with a smattering of Thrice and Senses Fail (especially in the vocal department), this sextet’s chops are undeniably solid (“Things Are Better (Left Unsaid)”), their passion  convincing (“To The Pacific,” “Here I Am”), and their content surprisingly secular bordering on edgy for a God-fearing group, barring their listless cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”  Yet if you follow this genre stringently, you’ve heard this all before, and in this group’s case, even a few times over throughout this entire disc’s span. A lack of variation aside, Sever Your Ties plays a competent brand of post-hardcore with hard rock melodics and hook-laden choruses at the forefront for all the kids to scream along to at next year’s Warped Tour. www.solidstaterecords.com –Mike SOS