Stick To Your Guns - The Hope Division (2010)

I’m a bit of a fan of most of the bands signed on Sumerian Records, and Stick To Your Guns are no exception. ‘The Hope Division’ is not, however, a technically demanding progressive deathcore album that is perhaps the norm from Sumerian; and while it is progressive, they don’t play around with insane time signatures, and it certainly doesn’t come anywhere near the realm of deathcore.

STYG’s pedigree in west-coast hardcore is not completely lost on the record, though; the guitars still carry a definitive hardcore tone, and the vocals are very much shouted as opposed to growled or screamed. But if anything, this album is metalcore: with more of a drive on melody and use of clean vocals than on angry brutality.

So the new songs aren't quite as moshable as the likes of ‘This Is More’ or ‘Such An Outrage’ from their older releases, but (though I’m yet to see them live) I’ll be willing to bet that a lot of the songs on this album will certainly be something to behold when played live; from the epic build up in ‘Some Kind Of Hope’ to the relentless rhythm of ‘Wolves at the Door’.

I don’t quite know what it is about this album, but it holds a captivating charm that makes you want to listen to it over and over. It provides a musical journey that is incredibly rare in the genre: the band were not afraid to stick an exclusively clean and acoustic song (‘Life Through Western Eyes’) in the middle of two heavier tracks, and yet it flows a lot better than other similar interludes.

If there’s one thing I didn’t like about this album it was the clips from some accented old man speaking about hope and responsibility and stuff. I have nothing against using clips of films in albums, but in this case it just didn’t work for me. The clips are too long, hard to understand, and boring.

8/10

1. Where The Sun Never Sleeps
2. What Goes Around
3. Faith In The Untamed
4. Amber
5. Wolves At The Door
6. Some Kind Of Hope
7. Scarecrow
8. Life Through Western Eyes
9. 3/60
10. No Cover
11. Sufferer
12. La Poderosa
* Hidden Track: This Is More acoustic



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