I don't usually follow news that much so I can't say for certain how much of a "surprise" album either Hope Against Hope nor Near-Death Travel Services were, but what is more important is that both of them happening were things I did not have on my bingo card, especially considering the huge absence both of these bands had. Usually the more extreme/metal side of hardcore is not one where you'd expect bands to still feel as vital and energetic when the decades pass, but I've been proven wrong by return / later career albums again and again. While Deadguy takes the cake for the length of the gap between full length albums, hitting the three decade mark, Catharsis' 26 years ain't too shabby either.
Though calling Catharsis "metalcore" isn't exactly accurate. They are hardcore and they are metal, but metalcore, even its more primitive 90s version, still offered a lot of variety in sound. You had hardcore that was just more metallic, you had the roots of mathcore, you had the original screamo wave, but what Samsara and Passion offered was something that was leaning more towards the crust punk in its punk side, and more towards a sludgy post-metal in its metal side. Hence why you can find plenty of shared DNA with early Neurosis and Fall Of Efrafa in the band's original material, and in what they present here on Hope Against Hope.
First off, it's amazing that every member ion this album has played on at least one past Catharsis, and considering the decades in between, it's good to know that none of them lost a step, and there's not much on Hope Against Hope that indicates that this is a band whose average age is that high. Brian Dingledine's vocals might be gruffer than most metalcore vocalists, and maybe some of that does betray his age a bit, though it loses none of its power. Having one of the first tracks, "Power", also include a spoken word section and some slightly operatic guest vocals (that do also appear on the next track) does work to make the vocal side more dynamic and dramatic before committing to its gruffness. It does feel like there's a bit of influence from how post-metal has evolved since the band's original days, with the record's slower moments feeling more expansive (and at times almost orchestral) than they used to be.
At barely over 30 minutes of runtime, shorter than either of their other two full lengths, and with mixing done by none other than Kurt Ballou, Hope Against Hope feels like a very purposeful record in recontextualizing the band's crusty sludgecore to a more modern iteration.
