Reviews list for Hope for the Dying - Dissimulation (2011)

As much as I enjoy symphonic deathcore, we really need more symphonic METALcore. Metalcore or melodic metalcore would really go well together with the epic orchestra of symphonic metal, and yet that almost never happens. It's always symphonic deathcore! DEATHcore!! DEATHCORE!!! Except for one of the most epic bands around...

Hope for the Dying's official full-length debut masterpiece Dissimulation is an album in which the "epic" label fits in quite appropriately. Before recording this album, the band made a self-titled release that was released as an EP then repackaged as a studio album released via Strike First Records. The band would then be signed to the label's more well-known older sibling Facedown Records. Just imagine Unearth and All That Remains with more progressive structures and Two Steps From Hell-esque orchestra.

The adventure begins with the intro "Exordium" which is the most Batman-sounding intro in a Revolution album besides Make Them Suffer's debut Neverbloom. Then to start the last third of the track, the metal guitars take the stage, rising from riffing to shredding. It makes the perfect transition to "Vacillation" with all its extreme technical speed. The screams and cleans are all in brilliant balance, already giving you all of this album's greatness to come. Then it all fades to orchestra and piano to get you ready for a heavy transition into the next track. "Orison" is another perfect flowing track. Note that all the tracks segue into one another similarly to BTBAM's Colors.

"Transcend" has that TSFH-sounding orchestra alongside some of the progressiveness of Queensryche gone heavier. The orchestra makes its bombastic flow through the heavy guitars, drums, and vocals. 4 and a half minutes in, a shredtastic solo is unleashed by slowing down in glistening melancholy. The sorrow bleeds into "Imminent War" starting with an acoustic intro before blasting into metal once again. "Perpetual Ruin" again has that "epic trailer music gone metalcore" motive.

And then we come to the glorious 15-minute 3-track suite, "The Awakening". Each one has different focus on an aspect, with the title track of the suite emphasizing the piano and strings, the title track of the album adding in some more shredding plus some female singing, and the third part "The Veil Lifted" closing the suite in both melancholy and progressiveness. The most vicious song of the album, "Vile Reflections" blasts away through metal yet again. Then it all ends with "Desirion", starting soft in the piano before the last bit of blasting metal gone orchestral and then wrapping things on a light symphonic note.

Dissimulation may not surpass Trivium's In Waves for the eternal reign of my personal best albums of 2011, but it's still one of the best that I wished I had discovered sooner. The older fans would get a kick of nostalgia while still sounding fresh the newer fans including myself. Orchestral metalcore is a sound that should've caught on a lot more. A must-have for anyone up for something both epic and extreme!

Favorites: "Vacillation", "Orison", "Transcend", "The Awakening" (full suite), "Vile Reflections"