siLLy puPPy One of the many modern melodic metalcore acts to spring forth from somewhere in the world in the 21st century, THE HOPE OF CHANGE was a one-shot album band that formed in Lake Havasu City, Arizona in 2003 and stuck it out until 2007. In this five year stretch it managed to release this one and only album HOURLGASS which came out in 2005 on Harvest Earth Records.

This short album 10 tracks clocks in at 31 minutes and 29 seconds and showcases a style of melodic metalcore in the vein of bands like As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage and Atreyu with heavily chugging metalcore guitar chugs, bouncy bass lines and that frenetic madman scream that sets the core genres apart although there are a few death metal growls and occasional clean vocals as well. The melodies really come through when the backing vocals bring them to the surface.

There seems to be absolutely no info about this band but the lineup on this one was Bradley (bass), Bryan (guitar), David (guitar), Aaron (drums) and Mike (vocals) although THE HOPE OF CHANGE experienced a massive lineup change in its five year existence. Given the fact that this album really doesn’t showcase any originality and that the band’s geographical location was isolated in the middle of the Sonora desert in the years before the social media thing took off it’s no wonder they found no traction.

Overall, this is a decent slice of melodic metalcore by the books but nothing to get excited about either. This has all been done to death before by much better bands with more imagination. This is an extremely noisy album as it seems the production tweaked the guitar tones to a really obnoxious level and Mike’s vocal style verges on EMO whining but if you are seeking yet another band of this style then the competency level of the musicians is high. Personally this is a bit too generic for my tastes but wasn’t a waste of time either.