Hope and Suicide

Featuring Bloodlet's trachea-shredded vocalist, Scott Angelacos, and hailing from the same swampy death trip locale, Florida, Hope and Suicide cause a serious row with Razorblade Smile. While not as ominous, overwhelming or malevolent-sounding as the mighty Bloodlet, Hope and Suicide are equally as metallic, if not more so, switching between faster thrash tangents and slower metallic doom. But, interspersed between the damage and abrasion are brief flirtations with metallised, vaguely melodic emo-style riffs and ever fleeting clean singing from Anglacos. Technicality throughout the music is also at a premium, but not to the point of wank, just in the variety of riffs and musical execution. Of the six songs "The Dead Hate The Living" and "You're Easier To Medicate When You're Tied Down" hit the hardest. True, Hope and Suicide does have the difficult task of overcoming Bloodlet's lingering shadow (especially as they're still together), but Razorblade Smile establishes an impressive base for the attempt.