UMUR "A New Hope" is the debut full-length studio album by US, Florida based thrash/alternative metal act Amboog-a-Lard. The album was self-released in 1993. Amboog-a-Lard were active in the years 1987 - 1996, but only experienced local success (they did get to open for acts like Anthrax, Exodus and The Ramones in Florida though). Shortly after the release of "A New Hope", bassist/guitarist/vocalist Jeordie White left the band to play with Marilyn Manson (under the Twiggy Ramirez stage name), and after a couple of years of relative inactivity Amboog-a-Lard disbanded.

Amboog-a-Lard is most often referred to as a thrash metal act and there are enough thrashy riffing and harsh thrash metal type vocals on "A New Hope" to warrant such a label, but on the other hand there are also too many alternative and at times even experimental elements on the album to call it a "straight" thrash metal release. Much of it has to do with the fact that Chad Steinhart´s keyboards and samples give off an early 90s alternative vibe, but vocalist/guitarist Dan Fontana also belongs to that camp when he sings clean vocals. He is a pretty gruff sounding vocalist most of the time though and his delivery and voice are not far removed from the delivery and voice of Chuck Billy from Testament. Musically Amboog-a-Lard´s most thrashy moments also remind me of Testament. A good example of that is the opening track "Beyond Insanity" (the first regular track after the short intro).

After that the album runs in quite a few directions. "Medicine Man (L.O.G.R.A.Y.)" is a heavy and at times more alternative sounding thrash metal track with experimental moments, "A Matter Of Honor" is a more mellow atmospheric track and "Trouble" is an industrial tinged track and so forth. This is truly an eclectic metal release (a band like Mordred comes to mind) and as I wrote above, I don´t regard this as a straight thrash metal release, even though that´s the dominant music style on the album.

The album is relatively well produced and the sound suits the music well. The musicianship are generally on a high level and especially lead vocalist Dan Fontana has an impressive range and a varied delivery. There were quite a few releases in those years that travelled the path between thrash metal and alternative metal (and very few were really successful or have stood the test of time) and in that respect "A New Hope" isn´t a unique release. There are however a significant amount of innovative ideas throughout the album, and as the music is delivered with both skill and passion, the sound production is pretty strong, and the songwriting inspired, a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.