IF HOPE DIES

Taken individually, one IF HOPE DIES song at a time might seem pretty cool. Listen to "Anthem For the Unemployable" or "Some Skynyrd", for example: simple, catchy three-minute slice of upbeat, energetic metalcore. The vocals are sorta in that LAMB OF GOD "angry bear" vein, with occasional melodic screams of the "Speed" Strid variety. The riffing is by turns melodic and flowing, and machine-tooled to the kick drum in a precision lockstep.

Give it about ten minutes, though, and "Life In Ruin" will start making the eyes of the most passionate Johnny-come-lately scenester glaze over. This is utterly, completely typical — its competence and familiarity are what make you start listening in the first place, but their absolute lack of originality dooms them well before the end of the record.

To their credit, IF HOPE DIES are more about keeping things simple and catchy than getting overly technical or trying to out-tough everyone with breakdowns and blast beats galore. But the overall effect is one of blandness, just another American band ripping off Swedish bands ripping off American bands in a big recursive pile of quasi-melodic fluff that used to move us, before it was beaten into the ground by a thousand bastard sons of CARCASS and IN FLAMES.

The saturation of metalcore is beyond complete, and IF HOPE DIES are part of the problem, not the solution. When the next big thing comes along and the metal indies unceremoniously dump all these third-tier bands, IF HOPE DIES will be right in the middle of the bloodbath.