Album Review

Albany, New York has brought up another outstanding act, this time representing the contenders for Best Metal Grammy...well, no, they‘ll never win a Grammy, but If Hope Dies do present us with ten killer tracks. Produced by one of Unearth‘s guitarists and released on Unearth vocalist Trevor Fops‘ label, it stands to reason that there might be a similar shading in the two bands, a sort of carrying-the torch type deal. There is, but not enough to write I.D. off as a second-rate Unearth clone. Songs like ‘Shop Til You Drop‘ and ‘Who Died And Made Us King?‘ are indicative early on of a band that‘s gonna make a statement. ‘Shop‘ begins the album with an all-out condemnation of big business: ‘hours converted to dollars/for the benefit of private interest/coerced, to reduce our options/there is no freedom within this economy‘. These fellas attempted (successfully) to penetrate the obfuscation of CEO and corporations in their lyrics, and it sets this album apart from a ton of others than sound like it. ‘Roddy Piper‘s Magic Sunglasses‘ is a beast of a song, with a strong central riff and a terrific breakdown towards the end, screaming ‘wake up! wake up!‘ The production overall is pretty good; everything‘s balanced, and the vocals get the proper front-and-centre placement. A bonus for If Hope Dies is that both guitarists are very good players; it means they can compose songs with a European-metal influence and pull it off winningly. These two guys could riff forever.

There‘s another huge riff in ‘The Hungry Ghost‘, which chronicles the clear-cutting and environmental damage that humanity (largely - let‘s be honest here - north American humanity) has inflicted on Mother Earth, but even though it‘s a good song, it‘s the same list of grievances brought to us by a different band at this point. The songs are mainly mid-tempo, but have moments where you‘re yanked from a careening double-bass run and hurled into a triple-chunga breakdown, which is a prerequisite in this genre. Heavy dissonance and from-the-abyss vocals remain a good way to get your point across; these guys are intelligent and socially conscious, and that‘s commendable if you have the chops to back it up, which If Hope Dies certainly do. The guitars have a nice gritty, organic feel, raw without being hard to stomach. A minor complaint is that I can‘t hear the bass for the most part, with the exception of a couple parts where it‘s thrust to the fore, but I can deal with that. And who is this drummer? This kid swings like Frank Sinatra!

Listening to this album, with the lyrics in front of you, is a redeeming experience; a lot of the songs detail negatives and downer situations, but positive solutions are reached in the end (‘The Taker Thunderbolt‘ is a good example). ‘Curcus Honorarium‘ (featuring guest vocals by none other than label president Trevor) slices like a very perceptive knife (man, these guys can write a song!) through the sludge of conformity, promoting individuality and shedding the weight of ‘the rich growing fatter as we carry the weight upon our backs‘, and the next track, ‘Sugar, Free Donuts‘, rocks an In Flames vibe.

Our society, and the world as a whole, is wracked by problems that have become so huge they seem insurmountable, and it‘s nice to know that there are people who will keep their eyes ahead instead of averting them, who will point out the problems instead of shutting up and keeping on, and in this case, who will create a meaningful album that demands to be heard. It‘s really remarkable that If Hope Dies managed to take one central theme, that of humanity screwing up the planet and ourselves, and write ten shredding, divergent tracks around it. Well done.