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Broken Hope: Grotesque blessings

09/03/10 || Daemonomania

Let’s be honest – while the name Broken Hope has sauntered past my ears on occasion I never would have checked them out had Mr. Joe Ptacek, lead singer, not checked himself out in January of this year. BH is one of those bands who have faded from ze great Metal Consciousness after over a decade of inactivity. Heard the name but wondered…

Did they incorporate bro-core elements?
Didn’t they feature ex-members of Agnostic Front?
Should I really just stop buying CD’s by third-tier groups and instead just focus on albums I know will be good?

I’ll endeavor to answer all three of these critical queries in this review. Wish me
luck. Ya gay.

So first and foremost NO BRO-CORE, NO AGNOSTIC FRONT. 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, as Jack Nicholson said in “The Shining” right after burying an ax in his annoying wife’s cranium while that little psychic kid booked it into the shrub maze. In my personal version of the film at least.

The third question is a bit trickier, however. It pits my desire to expand into the
deep catacombs of death and find hidden gems against the time-tested elitist
truth: if the band was any good, I probably would have listened to them by now.
Having been on a bit of a bad streak with these semi-known bands recently, Dreamo’s starting to wonder if he should save his hard-earned money and fill in the Bolt Thrower back catalogue. Speaking of tiers, just to illustrate the concept in respect to the death metal genre:

FIRST TIER: Bands that are synonymous with DM – Death, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Grave, Vader, your sister in complete darkness with grape flavored lipstick.

SECOND TIER: Bands that are damn good, but either due to being more recent
creations, not releasing many albums, and/or some failure in self-promotion just
ain’t genre kings – God Dethroned, Gorod, Zyklon, Yyrkoon, your grandma in that hot negligee with a handgun under the pillow.

THIRD TIER: Bands that will never be deathlords, perhaps because of a derivative style, lack of popularity, I dunno – Torchbearer, The Absence, Ribspreader, Broken Hope, your momma in the Burger King bathroom.

FOURTH TIER: Bands that suck. You.

So given that Broken Hope is third-tier, I was expecting either a diamond (for
disease) in the rough or a snoozefest. Sadly we’re talking more latter than former. Being a cheerful and positive individual, I’ll go over the good shit first. The
band does some things very well. Riff-wise they bring an interesting combination of melody and violence, sounding akin to Monstrosity now and again. Also on the
Monstrosity tip is a knack for staying away from conventional song structures.
Firmly in the cool column are the odd bass-driven technical bits that pop up
frequently, breaking up the expected songflow and perking up the listener’s ears.
Everyone can play their instruments. The low vocals are competently performed.
There’s some wacky samples incorporated to introduce various tracks. I’m fresh
outta good… you can tell when I start talking about the samples. No wait, and these wonderful lyrics:

I butchered a young boy like a farm fresh pig/ I ate his tender buttocks and penile twig. Beautiful.

The bad is that once you get past the first two tracks things start to get boring.
Like they had a few ideas, but not a full album’s worth. Soon it becomes a struggle
to survive through all 9 tunes. Must… listen… to a better band! Production ain’t helping – it is the flattest, driest thing I’ve seen since I made the mistake of turning the light on once I got done with your sister. How I’ll miss that grapey goodness though, sigh. The weak sound neuters the vocals and drums completely, really hurting any possible punishment “Grotesque salad dressings” had to offer.

Apparently I made a big mistake by starting with the band’s last release, expecting
it to be the most polished and accomplished of their discography. Fail. Sources inform me that “Loathing”, the album prior to this, would have been a better place to begin. So, not allowing my hope to be broken (ha) on these dudes or the third tier, I’ll dutifully check that one out next and get back to you. Little does “Loathing” know that upon it rests the decision as to whether or not I’ll ever delve into the seedy underworld of quasi-obscure DM ever again.

4,5

Information
Released: 1999
Label: Martyr
Website: Broken Hope MySpace
Band
Joe Ptacek: vocals
Larry DeMumbrum: drums
Brian Griffin: guitars
Jeremy Wagner: guitars
Like Eight Dudes: bass

Tracklist
01. Wolf Among Sheep
02. Chemically Castrated
03. Necro-Fellatio
04. Christ Consumed
05. War Maggot
06. Earth Burner
07. Internal Inferno
08. Razor Cunt
09. Hate Machine

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