If Hope Dies CD Review
If Hope Dies
Life In Ruin
(Metalblade/Ironclad)
Combining metal and hardcore? Shit. Why didn’t someone else think of this?
Like the bands it shares similar-sounding monickers with (As I Lay Dying, It Dies Today, As If Today I Hope Dying Dies), If Hope Dies can’t claim much originality. Vocalist Alan French grunts and growls, drummer Brandon Wakeham tosses around double-bass rolls like Tootsie Pops at an Independence Day parade, and guitarists Thad Jackson and Brian Ward hack up chunky riffs.
Occasionally, like on “Dead Reckoning” and “Anthem For The Unemployable,” the band get bitten by the melody bug and puts together a nifty riff or memorable chorus, but these, like creative metalcore band names, are few and far between.
— Trevor Fisher
Click here to download If Hope Dies’ “Fear Will Keep Them In Line.”
