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If Hope Dies
Posted by Editorial Intern on 31-May-06 @ 01:07 PM|
HQ: Auburn, NY
NOW PLAYING: Life In Ruin (METAL BLADE/IRONCLAD;ironcladrecordings.com) WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM:They're probably the only metal band in the universe who will cop to liking Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday. YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: Lamb Of God / In Flames / Shadows Fall Call them bleeding-heart metalheads: The band might align itself with the next next installment of what Headbangers Ball likes to call the New Wave Of American Heavy Metal--a media-generated "movement" spearheaded by the likes Lamb Of God, Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage--but the members of If Hope Dies can't help but love them some emo. "Most of us are into bands like Fall Out Boy and Taking Back Sunday," bassist Gary Mann says, "but we think the emo-show vibe is boring." That's where the metal comes marching in-specifically the influence of Swedish headbangers like In Flames and Soilwork. And, um, Manowar. Mann and his bandmates--vocalist Alan French, guitarist Thad Jackson, drummer Brandon Wakeham and guitarist Brian Ward--hail from Auburn, New York, the same town the self-proclaimed Kings Of Metal call home. (Jackson and Ward even took lessons from Manowar guitarist Karl Logan, and four out of five IHD members actually have Manowar tattoos that say, "Brothers Of Metal.") As such, IHD hope to mark their own territory with their third and latest riff bonanza, Life In Ruin. But in a metalcore circuit already bloated with names as varied as It Dies Today, Every Time I Die, Daylight Dies and (until recently) As Hope Dies, it won't be easy. "We played Hellfest with As Hope Dies three years ago, and at first we were really pissed about their name," Mann explains. "But they turned out to be insanely nice, so we joked about doing an 'As If' tour. Then we actually did a tour with It Dies Today, and wanted to call it 'If Hope Dies Today.'" -J. Bennett |
