Hawthorne Heights - Hope
American rock outfit Hawthorne Heights has been creating music together for over a decade, and recently created their own record label, Cardboard Empire. Since this development in their career, the band has made plans to release an EP trilogy. This began with the release of Hate earlier this year and will be followed by this release, Hope.
New Winter mixes some of the best sounds of talents such as Sum 41 to The Blackout, to make something incredible. The verses are punchy while the chorus is very catchy and can really grasp your attention; the children singing at the end is a good feature. Running In Place (Niki AM) has a slightly darker start. At times, particularly on the vocals there is a reminiscent feeling of an early Blink 182. The united backing chants make this song explosive and mind blowing. Stranded takes a more mysterious path, slow moving verses that approach a blast of a chorus; a united shouting of lyrics and some amazing guitar. Nowhere Fast remains fairly slow moving with a relaxed ambiance. The title track reverts back to something a little more upbeat and poppy; the united backing vocals that burst through will set of a series of amazing memories from live gigs past. Vandemonium opens with a chant and goes on to really grasp the attention of the listener, particularly the chorus while Chemicals closes this incredible EP perfectly.
The combination of the dominant lead vocal from JT Woodruff and the backing screams is perfect. JT sings the majority of verses and with the chorus kicking in and unclean as well as backing vocals really taking hold. Each of these tracks would be sure fire hits when performed live. The only way to listen to this EP and really feel the effort that has gone into making it is loud! With each EP planned to be release within months of each other, another should be released before the end of the year.