Hope and Horror

The content of "Hope And Horror" will be rather short, because the material itself is an ep, it is not long and it is a foretaste for "Shadows In The Light". However, it heralds a "direction" from which the band did not stray too far in the following years. More brutality came back, faster blasting parts (despite the prevailing average tempos), some more black riffs here and the patents that made the atmosphere a bit further away. On the other hand, the Americans from Immolation still stayed with the melodies (mostly in solos), refined the sound (it's more fleshy) and...their music can still be called more "human".

So there is no question of ever greater brutality as in the old years, but also average or nondescript songs - not in the case of this group. This ep is a great showcase of the band, something from the series for those who did not know the band before, but would like to get to know its style "in a nutshell". It can be said that "Den Of Thieves" and "The Condemned" are classically tailored death metal songs for Immolation, fully showing the band's strengths, decent and clear sounding, and without any softeners.

The biggest difference here, however, is the instrumental "The Struggle Of Hope And Horror", due to the fact...that it is instrumental! It doesn't mean, of course, that it's something superfluous or too ordinary, it's just that Immolation hasn't committed such songs before. The impressions from it, however, are equally good and the most important thing is that it is not a sterile filler here. The whole ep seems to be directly recommended, both for novices and regular Immolation fans who would like to know the band's "unused" songs. Oh, the second cd also features a live show from 2006 - also worth checking out for those who appreciate a death metal show without goofy inclusions.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/12/immolation-hope-and-horror-2007.html

“Den of Thieves” is the first song on the “Hope and Horror” EP, at first glance you will notice the honest intention to return to the reckless violence they displayed on the savage “Close to a World Below”. While production on this EP is much cleaner, as it is on “Unholy Cult” and “Harnessing Ruin”, composition wise it is set to kill as they did on their most acclaimed record. The frenzy and high velocity of Immolation’s bestial onslaught continues on the second track, but this time a slow and gloomy breakdown kicks in to give more variety to the music, which is a good thing. This is one of the brightest moments of the album I must say, followed by a nasty riff that remind me the main one from “Father you are not a Father”, they remind me the swing of an axe because of their crunchy and metallic essence.

“The Struggle of Hope and Horror” is one of Immolation’s masterpieces, it truly sums up what they are as a band. The moody guitar melodies in the introduction morph into a rhythmic procession that goes incrementing its intensity to suddenly drop down again to the moody guitar melodies, inviting the listener to take a look at the abyss. Then it regains the marching beat that leads to an epic solo by Robert Vigna. Another slow and heavy riff is repeated a couple of times before they leave you alone with another twisted guitar melody… there’s a little pause and then the other guitar answers. They continue their anguish filled and urgent dialogue until another solo comes in, again by Robert Vigna but this time he shares the spotlight with his fellow guitarist Bill Taylor. After this soloing orgy more riffs utterly committed to evil and violent are thrown in mercilessly. The slow and heavy riff of the beginning is repeated again to give the song and identity, some bands end up with riff salads where there is nothing to remember in a future listen and this is not the case with Immolation, occasional repetition of movements in songs give them a lot of significance. To end the song, the slow and heavy riffs morphs conveniently into the first guitars melodies…

This EP is some kind of brother of “Shadows in the Light”, their next effort. It shows exactly where the band was pointing at, a try to regain the roughness they had refined with the years, and they did it well. You can feel the fire of their fastest and syncopated old riffs mixed with the distressed, relaxed and breathing new grooves (still thought to crush the weak of course).