Published: Absolute Underground #55 December/January 2014
Broken Hope is an American death/gore metal band that has been around forever as far as the genre goes. If you listened to mid-paced death with really low vocals in the 90's then you're probably familiar with this band. They'd been broken up for more than ten years before they went on tour last summer. With only one original member in guitarist Jeremy Wagner they've put together a new album. If you like Gorgasm that's a bonus because they share a vocalist now. I think this album is already out on Metal Blade so it should be easy to find.
After a slightly annoying intro they get into the music and it's a pure 1990's death metal flashback...well late 90's. And in all the best ways. Low gutteral vocals and snare-heavy fast drumming mixed with riff-solo-riff. By song #3 "Ghastly" I'm having memories of listening to death metal when I was a kid and remembering why I got into this genre in the first place. "Rendered into Lard" is everything old school death is all about with the bonus of cannibalism. The rest of the album is where I would start using words like "classic", "wicked" and "brutal" to describe how good I think the songs are. They're mostly mid-tempo three minutes blasts of brutality. It's exactly how I like my old school non-tech death and I know I'm starting to sound a little like a fanboy here. The last four songs all had me wanting to jump around with a smile like I was a kid again. And then they end it with a redux of "Incinerated".
As is pretty obvious I really liked this album and will continue listening to it. If you are into an older style of brutal death that has no core in it, or if you think a lot of death has gone way too tech lately this is something to check out. The last third of the album has some wicked riffing that anyone should love. Check it out and make up your own mind.
Michael F. Carnage
http://www.brokenhope.com/
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