Melodic hardcore legends Hopesfall have returned with a hypnotic and haunting new single and music video ‘Hall Of The Sky,’ directed by Drew Tyndell of Computer Team. ‘Hall Of The Sky’ is the follow up to Hopesfall’s latest album ‘Arbiter,’ which was released on July 13th, 2018. “The song is about the plight of an activist or a revolutionary – the danger of standing up against institutions that are bigger than they are” – the band explains.
Hopesfall formed in 1998. Over the next decade, the band would undergo numerous line-up changes but always drew from the same core group of lifelong friends to source new members. The bond between the group was so strong that even after disbanding in 2008, members of the band continued to get together on Wednesday nights to work on new music despite having no plans to release it. It was during these jam sessions that the music that would eventually find its way onto ‘Arbiter’ first began to take shape.
In 2012, guitarist Joshua Brigham and drummer Adam Morgan visited frontman, Jay Forrest, in Chicago culminating in the decision that Forrest would add vocals to the demos. The lineup for the band’s reformation would then be cemented in August of 2015 when bassist, Chad Waldrup, joined the group to see Hum and Failure. Still, the idea of putting out new music as Hopesfall wasn’t part of the plan. The band brought their demos to another trusted collaborator – producer Mike Watts (Glassjaw, The Dillinger Escape Plan, O’Brother) whom they had worked with on two previous releases, ‘Magnetic North’ and ‘A Types.’ It was Watts who brought the demos to Dan Sandshaw and Will Putney of Graphic Nature / Equal Vision Records where the idea of releasing it as a Hopesfall record was finally discussed. A testament to the band’s hard-earned legacy, the famed label immediately jumped on the opportunity to release the project.
‘Arbiter’ has a decidedly unique bend to it, but Brigham points out that it is built off of the same principles as Hopesfall’s previous catalog – “big riffs and dark melodies.” Forrest adds that the driving message of ‘Arbiter’ remains the same as well: “Hopes fall. Tragedies happen. But that doesn’t mean you should give up or not stay the course.” With the release of ‘Hall Of The Sky,’ Hopesfall has welcomed back Ryan Parrish, reuniting the lineup that created ‘The Satellite Years’ seventeen years ago. His return is a testament to the strong bonds formed and the depth of the Hopesfall brotherhood.