If you consider yourself a fan of traditional screamo, you're already familiar with Hot Cross's roots. If not, no big deal. Just click your way over to Wikipedia and do a bit of research (it's worth knowing a band's origins). Risk Revival is the perfect album name for a band that lost one of its guitarists and avoided a break-up. Continuing on the path of their musical careers, Hot Cross signed to Equal Vision Records (with the likes of Fear Before the March of Flames, The Fall of Troy, and Circa Survive) imprint Hope Division Records. Hot Cross produced a much-anticipated record with a slightly different approach in comparison to their earlier releases.
The first track, "Exits and Trails," starts off very quietly. You strain to hear the acoustic guitar, turning up the volume on your car stereo. A couple of seconds later, a snare drum signals an abrupt end to the lo-fi intro. The rest of "Exits and Trails" is characteristic of previous Hot Cross songs, quick riffs, unrelenting drums and Werner's passionate lyrics, though it has a certain edge to it. This track left me hopeful for the rest of Risk Revival.
The next few tracks fly by without presenting anything new. "Silence is Failure," a much slower song, allows listeners to catch their breath before experiencing "Fatefully," a song with some of the best lyrics on Risk Revival. It's hard not to yell, "Fuck off! Fuck off! Because I don't need you!" along with vocalist Billy Werner; in fact, Hot Cross sets you up to do so. The other lyrics in "Fatefully" manifest deep thought concerning life:
Trapped by mantras never believed, lifetimes and lifetimes spent deceived. We'll decide amongst ourselves where we'll hang when we've died. We dwell on impermanence. We survive you, yet we are scared.
Because the production of Risk Revival is different than Hot Cross' other efforts, the band's gritty sound has been exchanged for an almost too clean one. Werner's vocals and lyrics exhibit the same amount fervor, but sadly lack harshness. Also, the back-up vocals are still there, but they're a little less awkward than before. Risk Revival isn't the work of Hot Cross's heyday, but it's a decent release nonetheless.
Contemporary hardcore is beginning to swing toward a repetitive joke. If drop-d jun jun's and massive amounts of double bass explosions followed by 2-step drum beats sounds familiar, then you know what I mean. Hardcore is not about the breakdown, well not in the common sense of the word anyway. Hardcore is about aggressiveness and honesty. Unfortunately, many upcoming artists have failed to see past the blinders and are worrying more about whether or not the crowd is going to dance to their music in opposition to creating self-expression. Luckily, however, there always seems to be a light at the end of a tunnel. A breath of fresh air from all the same melodies. Hot Cross has been that breath of fresh air for quite some time now and Risk Revival is their windstorm.
The band as a whole has had quite the past of band experience (Interpol, Saetia, Off Minor). And it is astonishing to know that after all of their beating experience they still continue. They do admit "it wouldn't be Hot Cross if everything went smoothly or easily." The band recently has gone through an arrangement change, leaving behind Josh Jakubowski, well sort of. Originally Hot Cross was a five-piece, two guitarist band. Life made its unmerciful swing in their direction and Josh left. In the aftermath all that was left was an unborn, no not baby, but album, Risk Revival. Everything was rewritten, changed, and still shaky. The first attempt to record the album failed. The project faltered and the band took time off. Not long after though they continued with the same Hot Cross-esque persistence. However, this time, ironically, they asked Jakubowski to help them record the album, which not only helped them get signed to Equal Vision, but also enabled them to finally complete an album that has been long awaited.
With that said, Risk Revival is an album you have to listen to at least once. Billy Werner, the bands lead singer, since Saetia, has been a very poetically minded individual. This album, however, is more to the point. It's a hardcore album in need of a rebellious breath mint. The guitar is explosive and the bass licks and kicks in its appropriate instances. It's almost as if Josh never left at all. Their "hit" single, "Turncoat Revolution," is a ballad of motivation that is complimented by thrashing guitar. "Kill the Name," hands down one of the best tracks on the album, holds true to the Hot Cross way of music with interesting time signatures and of course something that makes you want to eat your teddy bear.
However, as there always is a however, the album is almost too consistent. "Turncoat Revolution" has the scent of songs previously written ("Better Corpse than a Nun"). Each song compliments the next as if each were influenced by the other. The songs are good, but after listening to it numerous times, it becomes the same song over and over again. Hot Cross, though talented without double-take, can be tedious. If similar drum beats too often really makes your OCD freak, then please take it one song at a time. The same seems to unfold throughout, so it's really not just the rhythm section's fault this time.
The album does not rise up to the expectations of what should have manifested after Fair Trades and Farewells. It did have similar and sometimes evolved characteristics, but their previous EP was much more supportive toward each individual song. I think I'm too biased on songs that sound the same, regardless the album is worth listening too at least once a month.
