Praying, Hoping, Nothing

I’ve got to say, I’ve never had any tenderness for the original style of American metalcore. A lot of the bands in that early set with Integrity, Converge, and Earth Crisis sound way too jagged and messy for me, without much of the sharpness and momentum from the metal sub-genres I prefer. December fit into that mould, rough shouted vocals performed over gritty metal riffing and mixed with touches of The Dillinger Escape Plan destructiveness at moments. In terms of metal, that’s more or less my worst enemy, but I bought Praying, Hoping, Nothing really cheap in the hope that it would be passable. I still don’t really like it, but I can see some worth to the Nevadan group’s second album. Perhaps it was wise of me to end up with the Earache reissue, not only because extra tracks have been added onto the original 8 song effort, but also because some of those bonus songs are covers and thus prove a bit more accessible.

In essence, my problem with metalcore of this era is a semantic one, or at least can be shown semantically. 1998 was a year when metalcore meant metallic hardcore, causing most of the scene’s groups to adhere to blunt riffing, caustic vocals and percussion, plus unattractive - often DIY - production jobs. December certainly have the balance of genres down pat, as well as that extremely rough sound that rubs guitars horrendously against the listener’s ears like a sander across Michelangelo’s David. To put it another way: modern metalcore sounds like a soundtrack for jogging in the park and then screaming at someone who didn’t pick up their dogshit; original metalcore like this is the soundtrack to being force-fed dogshit in a prison brawl. Yes, it’s tougher and more violent, just not in a way that’s desirable to me. Some of the riffs on this album work alright for me, yet the prominence given to the rhythms and vocals, in addition to deliberately fast changes of direction, turn me right off.

Short songs work better than long ones would, which proves a relief. Almost everything concludes somewhere between 3 and 4 minutes, sometimes packing in repeating sections, sometimes not obviously creating any hooks. Mildly groovier riffs help ‘Heaven Below’ stand out, the melding of bass into certain sections feeling less headache-inducing than the noisy, grindcore-influenced opener ‘Umbilical’ or the time signature smashing ‘Shard’, though I wouldn’t really choose any of these songs for a playlist or something. In fact, the best of the original material might be ‘Lifelike (Almost)’, which here ends up a different length to the original version. The song escalates through some decent riffing and intelligent structuring, ending with all the screaming madness of the rest of the album in concentrated form. I guess it does what December were hoping for.

My thoughts on the bonus tracks are a bit mixed. Obviously, covers of Death Angel and Motörhead please me more stylistically, though I’m hardly going to listen to the covers instead of the originals. Along with a hookier Skunk Anansie standard, they show that December definitely meant to make Praying, Hoping, Nothing furiously abrasive, even if I end up mostly hating it. I expect one of these tracks will come on shuffle next year or something and I’ll check who the band is, remember the album vaguely, and then skip it. Fairly well-played early metalcore, but not for me.