VIHC.net VAN ISLE HARDCORE BOARD

Hey dudes, this is my buddy Als band from Calgary

http://www.myspace.com/hopedefeated

This started out awful and got better by the second second in ..

second second? or second song?

I will do a review of this band song by song, stream of conscience style:

First Song: Vocals have a SOIA vibe, I'm digging it. Chorus part, weird melodic moments work. An oddly Nickelback-esque solo that I don't like. Still, I could see myself getting pumped for this band, as long as this was a middle-set song.

Second Song: ...And Justice For All-style opening melodic picking. Mid-tempo riff that needs more balls. Distort the fuck out of it and I'm into it. AAAAAND there's more melody, but now it's working cuz it fills out the earlier riff that lacked balls. Okay, this is getting better. Oh...guess that was a instrumental intro bit? Weird placement.

Third Song: Too slow. Waaaaay too slow. However, this whole band has mid-nineties NYHC written all over it. That's not a bad thing. It's just missing something. An urgency, perhaps? This music is pretty good, but I'm not getting hyped on it like I'd like to.

Myspace is a bitch, by the way. I've had to reload this page like six times just to play those three songs. Fuck I like that site.

Fourth Song: I like this opening. Way more energy than that third song. We get right into it immediately, and I swear to god If I didn't know better I'd swear it was Lou Koller on vocals. I really, really like the vocals. This song is way more straightforward and does way more justice to the sound I think they're trying for. When they don't wank around this is really good.

FIfth Song: Okay, now I'm hearing more Snapcase in this song, I think it's the weird time changes and the fact that the vocalist is trying to actually hit notes with this one. I think this would be a rager live, but there's something missing on the recording. I think I just nailed this band as a whole, actually. Great live, but this recording isn't doing it for me as a whole. I really want to see them live now, if nothing else to see if I'm right. I bet they light the place up.

Sixth Song: Ugh. Too slow again. Speed this song up and I bet it would be ten times better. Oh, and now there's some screaming and I like that. More of that.

Demo as a whole is lackluster, but I see a lot of good to be had with this band. Third song was the worst by far, fourth song was the best. Like that weird intro part once I realized what it was. First song was...boring? Not bad, but not great either. Felt like the first song they ever wrote as a band (and we all have those songs). Fifth song was interesting and I liked it. Sixth song needs to up the tempo but is definitely a keeper.

If they came out here I'd check them out for sure. Seem like they're trying something different and I can back that. Any experimentation is gonna have it's ups and downs.

the guitarist is a dude i played in a band with. I'm fairly sure a couple of the dudes haven't been in bands before but don't quote me on that. And these are also the first songs the band has wrote. i expect them to get better with time. Also i think they should come play hcfest next year.

Crucified wrote:the guitarist is a dude i played in a band with. I'm fairly sure a couple of the dudes haven't been in bands before but don't quote me on that. And these are also the first songs the band has wrote. i expect them to get better with time. Also i think they should come play hcfest next year.

Would definitely be down for them to come play hcfest! I'm not surprised to hear that they're pretty young as a band, like I said these sounded kind of raw. I'm sure they're still figuring out how they want to sound. I'm gonna try and keep tabs on them and see where they go.

maybe it because I had to pause second empire justice for this... but I wasnt feeling it