A versatile post-hardcore outfit based out of Charlotte, North Carolina, Hopesfall sweated it out in living rooms and church basements before crystallizing their unique blend of emotionally raw alternative rock and sci-fi-obsessed melodic hardcore. Emerging in 1999 with The Frailty of Words, the band's early work contained religious overtones, but beginning with 2002's The Satellite Years, they adopted a more secular tone. Subsequent albums A Types (2004) and Magnetic North (2007) relied more on clean vocals, introducing elaborate melodies and grandiose sonic textures while maintaining a strong metalcore foundation. Hopesfall ceased operations in 2008, but reunited in 2011 for a series of shows. The band officially re-formed in 2016 and inked a deal with Equal Vision, who released their fifth studio long player, Arbiter, in 2018.
Originally operating as a Christian hardcore band, Hopesfall formed in 1998 and released their debut album, The Frailty of Words, the following year via faith-based punk and hardcore label DTS Records. A significant personnel shake up heralded the arrival of their sophomore effort, 2002's Trustkill-issued The Satellite Years. Founding vocalist Doug Venable left the fold, and with him went any affiliation with the Christian hardcore scene, leaving the rest of the group the creative space to carve out their own niche. Two years of touring followed to support the record, including gigs with the Killswitch Engage and Coheed & Cambria, before the band returned in the fall of 2004 with the more melodic rock-inspired A Types. It was their first release without original drummer Adam Morgan, and actually, only two members from the prior album carried over into the release, vocalist Jay Forrest and founding member/guitarist Joshua Brigham; they were completed by guitarist Dustin Nadler, drummer Adam Baker, and bassist Mike Tyson. Baker then exited in the spring of 2006, replaced by Jason Trabue. Recorded in Long Island with producer Mike Watts (As Cities Burn, As Tall as Lions), Magnetic North surfaced a year later, and saw the group striking a balance between the more alt-rock-inspired approach of A Types with the post-hardcore attack of Satellite Years. It would be their final outing for Trustkill, and the group's last studio album for over a decade. Nadler, Trabue, and Baker left shortly after the record's release, leaving Brigham to piece together a whole new band to promote it. After finishing the tour in 2008, Hopesfall officially ceased operations.
A series of reunion shows in 2011 suggested that the band wasn't quite done, and in 2016 they announced that they had signed with Equal Vision. In 2018, with a lineup that included Jay Forrest, Joshua Brigham, Dustin Nadler, Chad Waldrup, and Adam Morgan, the band issued their long-awaited fifth full-length effort, Arbiter, which debuted at number one on the U.S. Heatseekers Albums chart.
James Christopher Monger
AllMusic.com
