Love, Hope and Fear "Rose EP" CD
[State of Grace]
Not bad. Melodic, metallic hardcore/punk with a lot of tradeoff vocal screams, more creative than average rhythm riffs that take a hardcore foundation and spice things up a bit with different picking patterns and such, etc. Some of the thick chord progressions have a rocked out and barely dissonant edge, but the playing rings wide open, sort of reminiscent of a heavier version of some of the mid-90's Kentucky bands that had that melodic side happening (notably some of the more powerful moments in "Rose May Bleed"). The writing is fairly energetic for the most part, though. They jump around to several different tempos, there are some dynamic shifts without going too far off in any one direction (i.e. there are some clean and semi distorted guitars present), etc. I do think some of the tracks could stand to be slightly shorter, as they generally handle most of their business within the first three minutes and then sort of drag it along for another minute or so, but I enjoy this. I don't have any major problems with the recording. There's a raw edge to the guitars that works, the drums sound okay (because they're mixed well, the tones are way too thin), and the vocals work well with the guitars. The bass tone is sort of quiet because it's really defined and gets lost between the drums and guitars, which I might alter, but aside from thickening up that rhythm section it all sounds fine. The layout's somewhat bland, but it does work. It's basically all text with a recurring high contrast image of a rose. The outer packaging is all black and white, and the rose inside the booklet is red with red and white text. Nothing fancy. Lyrically things get pretty commonplace, as typical song titles like "Rose May Bleed" and "From Angels to Ashes" would suggest: "I close the pages and caress the spine of this beautiful memory you've given me. A tear bleeds the ink as I try to let go, but I still can't..." I'll pass. But I like the songs, and there's something here. I'd be interested in hearing more from this band based solely off of the strengths of "These Faded Pages". (6/10)
Running time - 21:25, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: Rose May Bleed, These Faded Pages]
State of Grace - http://www.stateofgracehc.com

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