| Hopesfall | |
| Landscape: | yes |
| Origin: | Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Years Active: | –, 2011, 2016–present |
| Label: | DTS, Takehold, Trustkill, Graphic Nature, Equal Vision, One Day Savior |
| Current Members: | Jay Forrest Joshua Brigham Adam Morgan Chad Waldrup Ryan Parrish |
| Past Members: | Doug Venable Christopher Kincaid Pat Aldrich Mike Tyson Adam Baker Jason Trabue Dustin Nadler |
Hopesfall is an American post-hardcore band from Charlotte, North Carolina, formed in 1998. They are currently signed to Equal Vision Records. The band dissolved in 2008 after all members, with the exception of singer Jay Forrest, left the band. Following this, the lineup of the band's first two albums got together temporarily and played reunion shows in 2011. The band finally reformed with the majority of their last album's members and original drummer Adam Morgan in 2016 with a new label Equal Vision Records. Arbiter was released on July 13, 2018.
Hopesfall (stylized as .hopesfall.) began as a Christian hardcore band in 1998.[1] They recorded their first album, The Frailty of Words, that same year,[2] and it was released in November 1999 on Christian hardcore/punk label DTS Records. Following the release of The Frailty of Words, founding bassist Christopher Kincaid left the band, to be replaced by Pat Aldrich. In 2001, the band released the EP, No Wings to Speak Of on Takehold Records. Ryan Parrish was at the helm of songwriting during time, creating what would become known as the signature .hopesfall. sound in the melodic hardcore genre.
2002's The Satellite Years saw the band signed to Trustkill Records[3] for a 3-album deal. This marked the departure of founding vocalist Doug Venable, and bassist Pat Aldrich.[4] Jay Forrest replaced Venable on vocals. Chad Waldrup replaced Aldrich as bassist. Ryan Parrish, main songwriter, lyricist, lead guitarist, vocalist, and visionary behind the .hopesfall. trademark sound,[5] was asked by the rest of the band to leave due to "personal differences" in the wake of the recording of The Satellite Years.[6] Ryan felt disillusioned with Trustkill Records taking creative control from the band and imposing the marriage of commerce with the band's art. This resulted in contention with the rest of the band who sided with the label, forgoing the previous vision of .hopesfall. The exit of Ryan Parrish would mark the end of the band's trademark melodic hardcore sound, Christian message, as Ryan was the primary songwriter and spokesperson along with Venable, the two were regarded as the Christians in the band.[5] The Satellite Years was released post Parrish's exit, despite him having been the primary songwriter for album[7] [5] [8] The Satellite Years was recorded at Great Western Record Recorders studio by Matt Talbott from HUM.[9] [10] The band confirmed via a Facebook story that Chad Waldrup beat Matt Talbott in the Nintendo 64 game "GoldenEye" which resulted in Talbott having to make good on a bet to sing vocals on, "Escape Pods for Intangibles."[11]
Ryan Parrish went on to join Nashville indie rock band Celebrity,[12] and is currently the lead guitarist in shoegaze band In Parallel.[13] [14]
Mike Tyson played bass for the band on the Satellite Years tour, later joining the band as a permanent member. Chad Waldrup departed the band shortly after taking over live guitar duties, and was replaced by Dustin Nadler.
The band followed The Satellite Years with 2004's A Types, which had a more alternative rock sound and was a drastic stylistic departure from The Satellite Years – notably, Forrest's vocals were almost exclusively clean singing. By the time of A Types release, Joshua Brigham was the only remaining founding member of Hopesfall, and along with Jay Forrest, the only other remaining member from the lineup that appeared on The Satellite Years, with drummer Adam Morgan having departed weeks before recording. Morgan was replaced by Adam Baker, who departed the band during the A Types tour to be replaced by Morgan again. Morgan left the band for good prior to the recording of the band's next album, Magnetic North, and was replaced by Jason Trabue.
Magnetic North was released on May 15, 2007. The album saw the band strike a balance between the contrasting styles found on The Satellite Years and A Types. They toured little in support of Magnetic North, and in July of that year they announced further lineup changes,[15] with Joshua Brigham, Mike Tyson, Dustin Nadler, and Jason Trabue all leaving the band. Cory Seals, Robert DeLauro, Paul Cadena, and Joey Manzione filled the vacancies, and, along with Jay Forrest, continued the US leg of the Magnetic North tour.
In September 2007, the band announced plans to change their name, thus ending the Hopesfall era; however, these plans never came to fruition. In January 2009, rumors circulated of Forrest's intentions to record vocals for several unfinished Hopesfall songs,[16] though no further updates were reported. Following the Magnetic North tour, the replacement members left the band, and in January 2008, Hopesfall finally announced their breakup.[17]
On August 5 and 6, 2011, the lineup from No Wings to Speak Of (Doug, Josh, Ryan, Adam and Pat) reunited to play shows in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Charlotte, North Carolina.[18] They played songs from those releases as well as The Satellite Years.[19]
The band reunited in 2016 and signed to Equal Vision Records, who re-issued their last 3 albums on vinyl.[20] The band announced their intent to release a new album in 2017.[20] The lineup for this new album comprises long-serving vocalist Jay Forrest, founding guitarist Josh Brigham and A-Types and Magnetic North guitarist Dustin Nadler, Satellite Years bassist Chad Waldrup, and founding drummer Adam Morgan.[21] Hopesfall released "H.A. Wallace Space Academy" on April 11, 2018, the first single from the new album and the band's first new song in 11 years.[22] On June 12, 2018, the second single, "Tunguska", was released.[23] Arbiter, the band's fifth studio album, was released on July 13, 2018, through Equal Vision/Graphic Nature Records.[24] [25] The album was recorded and produced by Mike Watts, who also worked with the band on A Types and Magnetic North.[24]
On May 31, 2019, the band announced the return of Ryan Parrish as lead guitarist on their Facebook page after 17 years apart.[26]
On February 24, 2020, the band released a new song titled "Hall of the Sky" that was available on streaming services the following day. In addition to the band's atmospheric post-hardcore sound, the song also features elements of progressive rock and post-rock.[27] The song is the first Hopesfall recording with Parrish since 2002's The Satellite Years.
In March 2020, the band had planned to embark on a tour across Japan with Taken. The tour was supposed to begin on March 25 in Tokyo, but it was later announced that the tour would be postponed due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.[28] As of December 2, 2022 the band announced the postponed tour of Japan was back on again.
The band's relationship with Trustkill was always adversarial; the label altered the track listing for Magnetic North without the band's knowledge,[29] and in an interview in the wake of the band's breakup, former drummer Jason Trabue accused the label of providing the band with insufficient promotion and financial support throughout their tenure on Trustkill, as well as withholding royalties.[30] In response to the MySpace bulletin announcing the band's breakup and revealing their distaste for their former label, as well as the interview with Trabue, Trustkill founder Josh Grabelle denied the accusations and leveled his own unsubstantiated allegations of drug use by the band as a cause for the breakup.[31]
The band's musical style has changed over the course of its career, but has primarily been described as post-hardcore,[32] [33] melodic hardcore,[32] [34] alternative rock,[32] and space rock.[35] The band was originally described as Christian hardcore on the debut Frailty of Words.[1] The albums No Wings to Speak Of and The Satellite Years have also been described as metalcore.[36] [37] [38] [39]
The band's influences are very diverse.[40] The band is influenced by emo bands such as Cursive, Karate, and The Appleseed Cast; alternative rock bands such as HUM and Jawbox; and hardcore punk bands such as Strongarm, Bloodshed, Shai Hulud, and Overcome.[40]
Current lineup
Past members
Touring musicians
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| Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Heat. [41] | US Indie. [42] | US Sales [43] | US Vinyl [44] | |||
| The Frailty of Words | — | — | — | — | ||
| The Satellite Years |
| — | — | — | 25 | |
| A Types |
| 23 | 23 | — | — | |
| Magnetic North |
| 30 | — | — | — | |
| Arbiter |
| 1 | 13 | 49 | 6 | |
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||
| EP details | ||
| No Wings to Speak Of |
|
|---|
| Year | Song | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | "The Ones"[45] | A Types | |
| 2018 | "H.A. Wallace Space Academy" | Arbiter | |
| "Tunguska" | |||
| "Faint Object Camera"[46] | |||
| 2020 | "Hall of the Sky" | Non-album single |
| Year | Song | Director | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | "The Bending" | Doug Spangenberg[47] | |
| 2004 | "Icarus" | Jason Dunn[48] | |
| 2005 | "Breathe from Coma" | Chandler Owen | |
| 2018 | "H.A. Wallace Space Academy" | Steve Seid[49] | |
| "Bradley Fighting Vehicle" | Tom Flynn[50] | ||
| 2020 | "Hall of the Sky" | Drew Tyndell[51] |