Hopesfall: “Changing Polarity”

It’s not often that bands come around who can push the both their own musical limits and a genre’s sonic capabilities quite like Hopesfall. All with the same goal in mind, the band has brought influences and concepts from all regions into the music they lay out. Appealing to fans of heavy music with heavier guitars on their new album Magnetic North, they have also continued to keep their melodic tones with trippy guitars and soaring lyrics. Continuing to push the limits of the music scene, Hopesfall is gaining a larger fan base each day giving them the potential to be the next heavyweights of the hardcore and emo worlds.

Starting off in Charlotte, North Carolina, the sound put out by the band fell in with the likes of both the hardcore and emo scenes. A national tour gave them the chance to promote their music and gain a fan base outside of their territory. The non-stop touring and growing popularity caught the attention of TrustKill records who released Satellite Years in 2002. The album gained quick praise which set the band on a 2 year touring spree, supporting The Ataris, Coheed & Cambria, Killswitch Engage, and Snapcase.

Heading back into the studio in 2004, A-types was released which held more melodic and technical elements which replaced the previous aggressive sound. A-types went on to sell 80 000 records, throwing Hopesfall in with much larger acts such as Underoath, Sugarcult, the Vans Warped Tour, and the Take Action! Tour.

Now on the verge of releasing Magnetic North, the band has reinvented itself with a careful balance of both mainstream and underground. With the production duties covered by Mike Watts, (As Tall as Lions) who engineered their last album, both the band and Watts shared the same dedication to produce a new and creative sound. The result of constant writing and experimentation is a new level of intensity with more weight in its heavy parts and a cleaner melodic sound. Evidence of what the album has to offer can be found on TrustKill’s Takeover 2 compilation, released last year.

Magnetic North is slated to be released May 15th, 2007 off TrustKill records. The album’s sole purpose is to shine a new light on the band’s talent and abilities and help raise the bar in the hardcore and emo scenes. While being on the scene for many years and having a combined record sale of 100 000, Hopesfall is still just shy of the heavyweight class. Nevertheless, with a new style and new album the band should suit up to soon fall into a whole new level of popularity.