Music

[Review] Hopes Die Last ‘Trust No One’

Published

12 years ago

February 7, 2012

At first listen, Italian band Hopes Die Last could easily be categorized as screamo and just left at that. Hell, my first playthrough of their new album, Trust No One, had me thinking this. But then I spun it a second time and new elements started peeking out from behind the curtains. Touches of alt-rock? Check. How about electronica and even dubstep? Yuppers. But do all of these elements combine into a solid package or do they try to tear themselves free from each other, striving for the spotlight?

Opening with Never Trust The Hazel Eyed, the album starts with high energy, fun use of panning and mixing, and features a breakdown that is actually incredibly fun in the context of the song. Playing with tempos, alternating between screamed and sung vocals, this song definitely sets the stage for the rest of the album.

The next track, Sidney Shown, sounds like there is a great deal of influence from Coheed and Cambria, especially in how the vocals and guitars play off each other. It also follows a very similar structure to many Coheed songs.

From a production aspect, this album brings a great deal to pay attention to. There are several guitar tones, ranging from clean to overdriven to distorted to heavily effected. The drums are powerful and the cymbals sound crisp and tight. There is also a satisfying low end thanks to a well-mixed bass and some deep synths. The vocals are, as stated above, a mix of screamed, growled, and sung. Lastly, the album makes heavy use of electronics, so expect to hear a great deal of variety in the background.

The band does a cover of Katy Perry’s Firework, which begins much the same as the original before quickly changing to a sound that befits the band a great deal more. While in the end it’s nothing special, it’s still an enjoyable song.

The final track, Keep Your Hands Off, which features Nesko, can only be likened to Korn’s recent album, The Path Of Totality. The mashup of electronic/dubstep/metal is a great deal of fun and can probably do a lot of damage were one to put it on a large sound system.

The Final Word: At the end of the day, Hopes Die Last’s Trust No One is a great deal of fun.

JonathanBarkan

Managing editor/music guy/social media fella of Bloody-Disgusting

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Music

“He Walks By Night” – Listen to a Brand New John Carpenter Song NOW!

Published

2 weeks ago

April 9, 2024

John Squires

It’s a new day, and you’ve got new John Carpenter to listen to. John Carpenter, Daniel Davies and Cody Carpenter have released the new track He Walks By Night this morning, the second single off their upcoming album Lost Themes IV: Noir, out May 3 on Sacred Bones Records.

Lost Themes IV: Noir is the latest installment in a series that sees Carpenter releasing new music for John Carpenter movies that don’t actually exist. The first Lost Themes was released in 2015, followed by Lost Themes II in 2016 and Lost Themes III: Alive After Death in 2021.

Sacred Bones previews, “It’s been a decade since John Carpenter recorded the material that would become Lost Themes, his debut album of non-film music and the opening salvo in one of Hollywood’s great second acts. Those vibrant, synth-driven songs, made in collaboration with his son Cody Carpenter and godson Daniel Davies, kickstarted a musical renaissance for the pioneering composer and director. With Lost Themes IV: Noir, they’ve struck gold again, this time mining the rich history of the film noir genre for inspiration.

“Since the first Lost Themes, John has referred to these compositions as “soundtracks for the movies in your mind.” On the fourth installment in the series, those movies are noirs. Like the film genre they were influenced by, what makes these songs “noirish” is sometimes slippery and hard to define, and not merely reducible to a collection of tropes. The scores for the great American noir pictures were largely orchestral, while the Carpenters and Davies work off a sturdy synth-and-guitar backbone.

“The trio’s free-flowing chemistry means Lost Themes IV: Noir runs like a well-oiled machine—the 1951 Jaguar XK120 Roadster from Kiss Me Deadly, perhaps, or the 1958 Plymouth Fury from John’s own Christine. It’s a chemistry that’s helped power one of the most productive stretches of John’s creative life, and Noir proves that it’s nowhere near done yielding brilliant results.”

You can pre-save Lost Themes IV: Noir right now! And listen to the new track below…