Laminated

I first heard The Hope Conspiracy a few years ago through a friend and was blown away by the raw energy and anger that the band portrays with their music. But, it seemed like I had developed a taste for the band too late. Hope Con had stopped playing for a couple years or so, and I figured it was the end for the talented hardcore/punk band.

I was ecstatic when I heard the band was back and signed to Deathwish, Inc. a few months ago. The band also had plans for an upcoming CD (with the LP to be released by Malfunction Records), so I was totally stoked. Then, to make things even better, Deathwish put up a pre-order in their e-store for a 3-song 7″ by Hope Con to hold fans over until the full length is ready. The 7″ is limited to 2000 copies, broken down into 4 different art/vinyl colors (making 500 of each color variation).

I got my copy in the mail today, and it happened to be the green version, which doesn’t really matter. I didn’t want to order all 4 colors like some folks, especially since the pressings aren’t limited at all. I just wanted a copy for the music (who would have thought?).

So I popped the record onto my turntable only to realize that it’s a 45RPM record, so at first I thought I was listening to Dying Fetus or something. I quickly fixed that by switching the speed on my turntable. Then I was just fucking blown away. Hang Your Cross starts off with 1 track on the A-side titled “Hang Your Cross” that is just pure hardcore punk the way it was meant to be. Blistering screams, heavy guitars, thick bass… it’s all there. The B-side tracks, “Dead Town Nothing” and “Eurohell”, aren’t too shabby either, but they aren’t as catchy or as strong as “Hang Your Cross”. They’re also much shorter songs. I’m not going to call them filler tracks, because I did enjoy them, but yeah… I’ll stick with the A-side on this 7″.