Joining up with acclaimed producer Dennis MacKay, East West returns for a very long-awaited second round. Hope In Anguish refines the group's sound while staying true to its trademark concoction of divergent hard music genres. East West is an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink band, and Hope In Anguish only brings this to light all the more: you'll hear bits and pieces of everything from punk to goth, from industrial to metal, and much, much more.

Hope In Anguish is a fitting title, as the album centers around the theme of spreading hope in life's darkest, hardest scenarios. Suicide, adultery, lost innocence, and even get songs to call their own, as East West explores the underbelly of a lost, dying world. Why go to such dark places, you ask? Because someone has to -- an entire generation is being lost to the horrifying ills of modern society. East West exposes them all to the pure light of truth.

MacKay fuses the group's finest qualities together into an altogether mature, more satisfying sound. Hope In Anguish winds up as something of a musical rollercoaster, swelling to intensely hard-hitting, grungy proportions at times, and shrinking down to more sedate amplitudes at others. Along the way, metalheads will go nuts over the absolutely killer guitar work, while the thinking listener will be engaged by the gritty word portraits of reality and a very tangible hope.

Robin Parrish