Hopesfall

If you believe what critics have written about Hopesfall's debut, the quintet is the brutal, sonically ambitious spawn of Obituary and Radiohead. While The Satellite Years established the band among the smartest of the screamo set, its followup, A Types, left the death-metal posturing behind, flexing melody and emotions more than muscles. The technically impressive, instantly accessible result is -- let's face it -- a little too cuddly to be compared to harsh-and-heavy Obituary. There's still plenty of edge and aggression, but with Jay Forrest's crooning and an abundance of hooks that can only be called catchy, Hopesfall now has more in common with emo rockers like Hot Rod Circuit and Sunny Day Real Estate. In fact, sucking it up and using the e-word to describe Hopesfall's dark, gutsy, sing-till-you're-purple rock would be the only honest thing for a critic to do.