Band: Hope For The Dying
Title: Hope For The Dying
Label: Strike First
Release Date: 11/25/08
Review By: JoshIVM
Tracklisting:
01. City Of Corpses
02. A Beautiful Day For Vengeance
03. Into Darkness We Ride
04. Our Fallen Comrades
05. Where We Are Going We Don’t Need Roads
06. Would The Angels Say
07. In Loving Memory
When I heard that the folks at Facedown were finally reviving the dormant Strike First Records I was excited to see what new talent they would pick up. The initial announcements were all familiar names and most of them positive for me. The only one I wasn’t sold on was Hope For The Dying. I had found these guys awhile ago and was impressed with their musical abilities, but there seemed to be something missing and they didn’t hook me. So I popped the disc in hoping that they had addressed the issues I had seen.
The opener, “City Of Corpses“, is definitely one of the highlights of the disc. It shows off the type of metal the quintet is capable of producing. It’s a long track, running over 7 minutes and flows well throughout, which doesn’t seem to always be the case on other tracks. The beginning to “Our Fallen Comrades” is pretty sweet with the harmonizing guitars and really starts building into an epic song, but didn’t seem to ever get to a pinnacle liked I’d hoped. Musically, the band plays a style that has a progressive metal vibe but with obvious 80’s influences and more modern styles as well. Think more along the lines of Becoming The Archetype. A more thought out metal rather than just speedy riffs and breakdowns. The vocals aren’t my favorite but they aren’t bad either, just different. He has a mid-range scream, which almost seems more along the lines of some screamo singers than metal. It did take away from my overall enjoyment but not enough to ruin the whole thing for me. The clean vocals match them well and I was glad they weren’t weak sounding. A second factor I feel that hurts this band is production. With this type of sound you almost need top of the line production, which obviously Strike First is not able to do with a brand new artist. Perhaps we’ll see more of that down the road.
Overall: A good debut that certainly showcases a musically gifted group with the potential for a bright future but one that also has some downsides. If the band can develop that “it” factor that will propel them beyond other metal acts out there they would definitely be one to watch out for. I would like to see this band succeed and get better production and more experience under their belts and blow me away on their sophmore effort. The talent is there and only time will tell.
Standout Tracks: “City Of Corpses”, “Our Fallen Comrades”
Links:
Myspace
Strike First
Buy: Facedown Store