The current video for "Pray for Me" can be seen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTQwEcrR_ig
Life challenges us. It is not just made up of anger, sadness, or joy. We are angry and sometimes bitter about what has happened to us. We think we can already taste the gentle flavor of peace on our tongues, while in reality, we are still licking our wounds. Sometimes we mourn what is lost or the fact that we cannot realize everything we have dreamed of. Then again, there are moments when we are completely ourselves. Fully focused, in the flow, joyfully engaged in what we can do well and love.
The second album of the Viennese band HOPE TILL DECEMBER combines all these feelings. In one moment, you want to cathartically lash out to the breakdowns of "Gasoline" or "Coffin Shaped Lungs" and hope that there will be others in the mosh pit who enjoy a few drops of blood among friends, rather than just holding up their phones to film. In another, you throw yourself into the foreign arms of a fellow human and sing along with them the heartfelt yet harsh mid-tempo bangers like "Pray For Me" or "Clear Eyes And Open Hearts" at the top of your lungs. In the third, you want to jump on stage at the exact moment when "Dissonant Smile" picks up speed again after a mosh part, to dive back into the crowd to the opening melody that affirms life out of pain.
Driven by the interplay of dissonance and harmony, the quartet searches for inner peace in every beat, which is not so easily found to the grim delight of the audience. The guitars propel this struggle forward on one hand, while on the other, they layer stone upon stone to create a powerful wall of sound. The vocal colors of singer Michael Krüger and bassist Patrick "Herzal" Schmid rub against each other and the passionate wrestling between pain and joy. Genre terms like Metalcore or Post Hardcore form the basis of the events, but they fall short when the uncompromising nature scratches at Noiserock and the feeling of these songs simultaneously reminds one of Hot Water Music, The Draft, or Bokassa, of the sweat and tears of what can be called Heartcore.
Life can end quickly. On the cover of "Hell Is Home, Home Is Good," the house is burning. Everything is in flames, and there seems to be no way out, yet when you listen to the music accompanying this dramatically hopeless artwork, you see the residents fleeing across the adjacent fields. They have just made it out, must scream as they watch their home burn, but already sense that there will be a new morning. Because they have survived everything: the pain, the mistakes, the deepest lows. We walk through these emotions with them and expose them to it all over again, because there is so much to bite into and feel on this record that we start it over again after the last note. Because we are also angry, anxious, and sad, yet at the same time full of joy and hope – and because it feels good to know that there are a few kindred spirits in HOPE TILL DECEMBER who live this with us.
The album was released on April 4, 2025, via FFS Labelservice and is available digitally on all streaming platforms.
Line Up
Michael Krüger / Vocals
Patrick "Herzal" Schmid / Bass, Backing Vocals
Johannes Schelakovsky / Guitar
Manuel "Mandl" Kaufmann / Drums
Hope Till December live:
April 11, 2025 A- Vienna // Szene - Release Show "Vienna Core Fest"
June 20, 2025 A- Leoben // Iron Road for Children –
Discography
Hell Is Home, Home Is Good (2025)
Awake The Unknown (2022)
