IN PLACE OF HOPE
“Southampton”’s In Place of Hope (they’re keen to point out that only one member actually comes from the town) were formed in 2010 and cite the likes of Trivium and Killswitch Engage amongst their influences. 2011 was spent touring the south of England, although they do promise to venture north this year, building up a fan base, which seems to have worked for them as Justin Hill of SiKth fame took them under his wing to produce their eponymous debut EP.
The EP doesn’t attempt to break the listener in gently, kicking off with the all-screaming ‘Lifelines’. The band themselves describe it as “full-on abrasive”, which describes it pretty well. There are moments of lighter music with the almost to clean secondary vocals taking the lead on the chorus. This is followed by ‘Bridges’ which is almost the opposite of ‘Lifelines’ as rather than thundering into play, it starts off with acoustic guitars and clean vocals before the growling kicks in. The song shows the band’s diversity and adds some nice dynamism to the EP that prevents it from becoming a wall of noise.
‘Dark Roads and White Knuckles’ finishes off the EP perfectly, showing listeners what they can do by turning the music on its head again. Kicking off with a thunderous guitar riff and screaming vocals, bringing it full circle (though not quite as full-on as the opening track). This continues until the middle section of the verses that are full of low end notes making up a chugging riff. Once again, the chorus makes use of the clean vocals but this time combines them with the heavier end.
The EP is a great snapshot of what the band can do musically at it perfectly combines the rough with the smooth, which is great when you only have three tracks to work with and is fairly impressive from a band that have been together little over a year. The EP as a whole is heavy enough to keep fans of their contemporaries satisfied while being catchy enough to give it “replayability”. With two new singles planned for this year, it’ll be interesting to see where the band go from here and they’re certainly worth watching out for.
The EP doesn’t attempt to break the listener in gently, kicking off with the all-screaming ‘Lifelines’. The band themselves describe it as “full-on abrasive”, which describes it pretty well. There are moments of lighter music with the almost to clean secondary vocals taking the lead on the chorus. This is followed by ‘Bridges’ which is almost the opposite of ‘Lifelines’ as rather than thundering into play, it starts off with acoustic guitars and clean vocals before the growling kicks in. The song shows the band’s diversity and adds some nice dynamism to the EP that prevents it from becoming a wall of noise.
‘Dark Roads and White Knuckles’ finishes off the EP perfectly, showing listeners what they can do by turning the music on its head again. Kicking off with a thunderous guitar riff and screaming vocals, bringing it full circle (though not quite as full-on as the opening track). This continues until the middle section of the verses that are full of low end notes making up a chugging riff. Once again, the chorus makes use of the clean vocals but this time combines them with the heavier end.
The EP is a great snapshot of what the band can do musically at it perfectly combines the rough with the smooth, which is great when you only have three tracks to work with and is fairly impressive from a band that have been together little over a year. The EP as a whole is heavy enough to keep fans of their contemporaries satisfied while being catchy enough to give it “replayability”. With two new singles planned for this year, it’ll be interesting to see where the band go from here and they’re certainly worth watching out for.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Self-released
EP
IN PLACE OF HOPE
Review by Siân Williams
RUNNING TIME:
11:59
RELEASE DATE:
12th March 2012
TRACK LISTING
1) Lifelines
2) Bridges
3) Dark Roads & White Knuckles
2) Bridges
3) Dark Roads & White Knuckles
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
UK
"The EP as a whole is heavy enough to keep fans of their contemporaries satisfied while being catchy enough to give it “replayability”."
