Band : The Hunger
Album title : Hope Against Hope
Label : Shield Recordings
Distributor : Bertus
Release date : 01/10/2008
Release : (Digipak) Mini-CD (6 tracks)

The history of North Holland Hardcore act The Hunger (based in Groningen) starts in 2007. They almost immediately record their first 2-track demo, which is then distributed through War Inside Records (not really a label, and The Hunger's demo was the second they helped distribute; next up will be the Swallow demo by Utrecht/ Amersfoort based Hardcore act Outlive) on a limited 100-copy cassette tape rotation (incredible, eh, but that music carrier medium still exists).

The band played their first live shows at the end of that same year (Dec. 22) and early in 2008 (Jan. 10), and the performance gets a warm welcome. In the first weekend of May the boys record 6 new songs (with Nico van Monfort, already renowned from having worked with the likes of Antillectual, Said And Done, Citizens Patrol, Strike First, to name but a few), and while in the process of mixing and mastering the band is offered a deal by Shield Recordings (not surprisingly, quite a few of the bands mentioned just now happen to be on thàt label, see?) for release of the mini-album on vinyl and CD! With a couple of planned gigs (among which June's Thrashfest)to tie the band over the Summer, the line-up suddenly needs adjusting when guitarist Sander leaves. Bassist Niels replaces him, and to complete the fivepiece (which also includes Jaap, Rick, and Nico...but I have nó idea what their specific functions in the band are) Bas (of Straight A's and Jetsetready repute) is recruited on the bass.

With influences including Integrity, Unbroken, Entombed, Despair, Catharsis, Hope Conspiracy, Nine, Converge, Cursed, Harvest, Ringworm, Mastodon, and Black Sabbath, you may very well suspect this quintet to play a fairly Metal-ed up kinda Hardcore, and you would be right to think so!One might be tempted to label the outcome as "Metalcore", but that would only be giving in to an urge to take the easy way out!  Indeed, the band's sound is best described as an extremely Heavy Hardcore with a Rocking twist and aggressive vocals. To be quite truthful, the best way to get to know what the band sounds like is to surf on over to myspace.com and check out the two songs the band posted there. Point of interest about "Sway With Me", is that the lyrics are taken from Charles Bukowski. What with the average length of these songs being just over 2 ½ minutes, the whole affair only lasts a meagre 14 ½ minutes...not enough by far to my personal hungry taste!!! I want to hear more by this band, lots more, and soon enough too! If you feel the same, start off by getting yourself a copy of the album...hum, even though I already hàve the CD, I'm gonna try and get (buy) the vinyl version as well (because that simply lasts longer, you know, and the artwork is so much more beautiful in full size!). For the time being, there's one of the two songs off the demo you can listen to at myspace.com/warinsiderecords!!! Have fun!

98/100

Tony.