Hangman's Chair - 'Hope///Dope///Rope' (Album Review)

By: John Slaymaker

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 25/07/2012

Label: Bones Brigade

‘The Saddest Call’ starts off with a sample of school kids chanting a hangman elegy, which really does put you in the mood for some doom. The guitars come in with a slow chordal riff depicting the themes, but are actually as catchy as hell. Immediately hooked and wondering “Why isn’t this band bigger”?

‘Hope///Dope//Rope’ CD//DD//LP track Listing

1). The Saddest Call
2). Open Veins
3). Ain’t Living Long Like That
4). December
5). A Scar to Remeber
6). Alley’s End
7).  Hope///Dope//Rope

Hangman’s Chair is:

Clement Hanvic | Bass guitar

Mehdi  Birouk  Thepegnier | Drums

Julien Rour Chanut | Guitars

Cedric Toufouti | Vocals

The Review

The first track on this awesome miserable threnody, ‘The Saddest Call’ starts off with a sample of school kids chanting a hangman elegy, which really does put you in the mood for some doom. The guitars come in with a slow chordal riff depicting the themes, but are actually as catchy as hell. Immediately hooked and wondering “Why isn’t this band bigger”? And after a quick Google search, I find that they are indeed getting bigger, with tour dates in Australia. Cool.  The album artwork is cool too, with a glum looking figure clad in black, on a blood red Parisian background.

‘Open Veins’ runs straight in off the back of the first track, continuing said pace and gloom with themes of drug addiction and a great use of film samples.   ‘Ain’t Living Long Like That’ comes in with nice chuggy riffs and good fat tones (which continue throughout the album).  Cedric Toufouti has a great vocal range and utilises it well.  The songs are all well formulated and sequenced.  ‘December’, dare I say it? Has a ballady feel but there’s no love songs on this baby.  ‘Alleys End’ has a classic blues feel and all the songs on this album are different to the next, some with more commercial tendencies than others, like this one.

Well as I lay in my cold bath with my bloody veins exposed, my lifeblood dripping away, maybe I should tell you about the last and title track. ‘Hope///Dope///Rope’ is definitely the album highlight, at nearly eleven minutes, it’s the spoken word introduction that does it. Basically he’s telling us that Mother Nature has had enough of the human race and is now preparing a nice little brew to keep us all under control.  But hey, at least we get 8 more minutes of that wicked melancholic doom riffery. Great stuff.

Buy the record from Bones Brigade here



Band info: Bandcamp | Facebook