I went pretty extreme on my past few posts, so I figured it was time for a slightly more melodic release to cover.
This band went relatively unheard of despite being on the infamous Tribunal Records during its heyday in the early 2000s. With an official address listed in the booklet as Glen Burnie, MD (the town where Heavy Metal Parking Lot was filmed), I was lucky enough to see these guys on several shows back when I used to frequent the Baltimore area. They were originally called All Hopes Die and released a 3 song demo that I believe I reviewed for my zine back in the day, Preserving Silence.
The three songs found on this demo are very reminiscent of the sound that was coming out of the area at the time. With a very strong influence from Age Of Ruin, this outfit would change their name to Samadhi and release a 5 song EP on Tribunal Records. All of the pieces were in place for a monumental release: recording with Eric Rachel, mastering by Alan Douches, artwork by Aaron Turner (of Hydrahead notoriety) and 5 songs that pretty genuinely rule.
The band opted for a much more melodic sound on this EP than what was contained within the demo, but the God Forbid/fortheloveof influence was still every bit as prevalent as it was on the All Hopes Die demo. Some clean singing parts were introduced, but mosh was not sacrificed. The hooks are every bit as prevalent as the over-the-top mosh parts thanks to the crystal clear production on this album.
Overall this is probably one of the more listenable releases on Tribunal Records. The choruses even out the riffs lifted from Gothenburg to make, quite honestly, an extremely catchy album. Admittedly, this band is not my typical forte for this blog, but who the fuck else is going to post this gem? It doesn't have the novelty of being from the 90s, it's not "hard" enough for mosh blogs and it never came out on vinyl for the the hipster hardcore kids to drool over trying to find a copy. You know I always have to look out for the underdogs here at the Path To Misery blog.
As far as I knew, this band was long gone after the release of this EP. I know, at the very least, I never saw their name on any flyers post-2004. A bit of internet researching proved to show that the band self-released a full length album in 2008 that was produced by a member of Soilwork (not to mention artwork from someone in Dark Tranquility). The band obviously shifted their influences towards the modern, melodic death metal approach that contributing members mentioned above are a part of. Regretfully it seems as though the band never followed-up on the release of this album and have once again faded into metal obscurity.
Included in the download is the extremely rare All Hopes Die demo, The Finest Of Sorrows EP and the final full length mentioned above entitled Incandescence.
DOWNLOAD
4 comments:
the singer from Samadhi, Ben Swan actually joined Age of Ruin and was in it in like 2004-05 for a while, when AoR was composed of basically no original members. He sang on the Tides of Tragedy record I believe. My band toured with them in summer 2004. and we had played with Samadhi back in 01 or 02. cool dudes, good record.
What band did you used to be in? I am pretty familiar with what was going on in Baltimore at the time.
Any chance of you helping me find Edge Of Hope Mp3s?
sorry it took me a second to get back to you. I was in a band called Endicott from Albany, NY. we were a metalcore band and later shifter more toward a rockier sound. We put out a record in 2004 on Equal Vision, and Age of Ruin was the first band we toured with in support of it, at the time that Ben was in the band.
Unfortunately, though I have heard of Edge of Hope, I'm thinking you have a way better chance of getting ahold of those Mp3s than I do.
best of luck man, i love your blog.
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