A Better Hope Foundation

A Better Hope Foundation - You Can Never Go Home Again

I'm going to start off with a favorite of mine, and then get the ball rolling on some other albums that I don't enjoy as much as this one.

ABHF is an Dark Hardcore/Emotional Hardcore band from somewhere California--they mostly play at a local café called Ché Café Collective. This guys just really sit on the border of not being Emotional Hardcore, the only I'm saying they are is because these lyrics are stock emotional hardcore lyrics. BUT they are definitely the best I've come across; deep, thought-provoking, and generally on the sadder-side.

The instrumentation on this 4-song EP is fairly common (vox, bass, guitar, guitar and drums). It has all the D-beats you could hope for in all the right places, and the drumming is actually one of my favorites on ANY release, everything helps the songs while not being a lame drum part, thus making me spend plenty of hours playing along for the shits-and-giggles of it. The guitar is pretty common too but there are moments were the atmosphere they provides is more dark than the usual emotional Hardcore provides. I almost get an Egyptian atmosphere which is a real ticket seller for me. The bass lines on this EP, oh my god. The bass lines on this EP is probably the best I've ever heard out of the genre, so damn tasty that it makes the drums sound so good, which is important.  Now for the vocals, this guy has probably one of the better sounding voices in hardcore, it's kind of in your low-medium range, and it just helps build that atmosphere I was talking about earlier.

My favorite track for vocals: City Laments
My favorite track for drums: Brothers In Broken Arms
My favorite track for bass: Below The Salt
My favorite track for guitar: Below The Salt

The songwriting on this EP is just fantastic, there doesn't ever seem to be a dull spot in this 13 minute time span. The use of dynamics is so tasty.

Just beautiful.

http://abetterhopefoundation.bandcamp.com/