Convictions – Hope For The Broken
A couple weeks ago Convictions put out their third album ‘Hope For The Broken’ and it’s just as good as their last one. In some ways they remind me a lot of Currents, one of my top ten bands from last year. They have the spark…they just need the attention to really blow up.
Once you listen to the intro track you know these guys are going to go hard on all 13 songs, and yeah, I’m giving bonus points for an intro track because they’re great and nobody does them anymore.
“Deceptive Heart” is one of my favorite tracks partly because of the slight nu metal influences, but mostly because the high screams sound a lot like Mike Hranica from The Devil Wears Prada’s early material. They’re done really well here and I wouldn’t mind if more of the songs turned out this way. Plus the breakdown at the end with the extra long scream sounds like it’s straight from a Fit For A King song which is always good.
It took me a couple listens to realize that one of the reasons I like ‘Hope For The Broken’ is because each song is different enough that you don’t feel like you’re listening to the same thing over and over. The differences are subtle and they do a good job of tying everything together, but it really hit me when I started to think about what band each song reminds me of.
I ran into this problem in my review of their last album too; it’s tough to review them and not name drop a bunch of big bands they have things in common with. If you look at the top comments on their songs you’ll see “Deceptive Heart” is The Devil Wears Prada, “Voices” is Underoath, “Divided” is My Ticket Home, and the list goes on. It’s a testament to how versatile the band members are.
The low screams add a lot to the versatility; they give Convictions a level of heaviness that other bands don’t have. I’m a big fan of how the lows contrast with the mid to high pitched yells and the breakdowns make them even heavier.
The title track deserves some attention too. It’s the most emotional on the album and it still catches me off guard because they do the melancholy style really well. I have a lot of faith in these guys, they’ve explore new territory and keep pushing their boundaries.
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