Ehhh, I thought this might be really good because the CD is packaged with a cool looking design and the first track is a nice synth instrumental with some piano and programmed beats... but after that it's 20 minutes of totally derivative modern metalcore in the melodic Swedish death metal vein. Now, I'll give these guys credit for writing some decent songs and powerful riffs. In fact, they're actually a lot better at this stuff than about 90% of the American bands out there trying their hand at this genre right now. But that being said, if I really want to listen to this stuff I'll throw in an old Dark Tranquillity record or "Slaughter of the Soul" or whatever. The only difference will be that those records won't have any brief super heavy mosh parts like this does. But for the most part As Hope Dies writes songs that sound like they've been listening to a lot of early In Flames and all that stuff. The melody is constant, there are a lot of dual guitar harmonies, there's a lot of tight tremolo picking, the vocals are midrange screams, etc. I've heard it all before, far too many times. The production also bothers me, and that's one of the things that holds me back from being able to get into this strictly from an enjoyable songwriting standpoint. They're not so bad off in the recording department, but they need to beef it up a bit. The vocals are too abrasive and overpowering, and as good as the drumming is I hate the drum sounds. The cymbals are really clear and the snare is great, but everything else cuts through the mix and really distracts the listening process. I can hear the bass, but it needs to be louder, as do the guitars (which might mean cutting out some low-end tones to maintain clarity). I don't know... balancing out the mix and recording the drums in a warmer fashion would probably do the trick. The layout looks good. There are a lot of shockingly bright colors, even down to the semi transparent reddish/pink CD tray. The front cover has a spiral of skulls underneath the band logo and album title, but everything else is basically a bunch of dirty/scratchy textures in bright orange and yellow with a little bit of dark brown. The lyrics are quite similar to most of what's out there right now when it comes to this stuff, "Remove this blade that has been shoved in my back, At a time that I was so fragile you offered nothing but the cold of your shoulder, And when I needed a hand to hold you instead offered this blade and tore me forever with its effect..." No thank you. "Stabbed in the back" metaphors of any kind were already overdone in 1988... it's 2003 now. "Awaken" and "To Mend the Wound of a Plagued Heart" break out some singing vocals for a brief period, and I think they should really experiment more with that type of diversity. They don't really need to, but it would be nice to break up the monotony a little bit, because even though this is an EP it gets old after about 15 minutes. If you really like this stuff, I have to say that this band is far better than average. I'm just still really tired of the complete saturation of this genre.
[Undecided]
Running time - 23:22, Tracks: 6
[Notable tracks: To Mend the Wound of a Plagued Heart]
Undecided Records - http://www.undecidedrecords.com
