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Hundred Year Storm - The Future Belongs to the Brave

Rating

RIYL

Jeniferever
As Cities Burn
Explosions in the Sky
Appleseed Cast

Release Date

06/09/2009

Tracklist

1 Lift Your Voices
2 Look to the Skies
3 Crown
4 See You On the Other Side
5 Float Away
6 Barely There
7 Sunrise
8 It's Alright
9 Eclipse
10 Success of Liberty
11 Dying Giant
12 Come Broken Heroes

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Recent Ratings
thetsaiguy	thetsaiguy
M.J.Austin	Rick Gebhardt

If going by rateyourmusic.com, Hundred Year Storm have to be one of the most under-appreciated post-rock bands out there. Releasing two full lengths in 2006 - Only When It Is Dark Enough Can You See the Stars and Hello Children From the Planet Earth - both have a mere 1 and 7 ratings respectively (and that's including my two votes). A quick browse on amazon.com reveals even less: not a single superlative-laden review nor a malicious diatribe graces any of their albums.

The Future Belongs to the Brave is the band's third long player and is another solid release that's unfortunately most likely going to go unnoticed (as of today it only has a meager 4 votes on RYM). Combining post-rock with an indie rock aesthetic in a similar fashion to Jeniferever, The Appleseed Cast, or perhaps As Cities Burn, the band also peppers their music with dramatic samples and executes their emotional post-rock with affecting vocals. Post-rock bands usually tend to let the music speak for itself, and sometimes vocals can seem unnecessary in the genre, but the vocals of Bill McCharen fit in perfectly and transform Hundred Year Storm's songs into glorious hymns. This is executed perfectly on “Float Away” where Bill duets beautifully with an female voice over an airy and dreamy landscape.

There are a few songs that are instrumental (save for the occasional samples), and also a few that rock out, and its on such tracks like “Barely There” and “Success of Liberty” with their clunky bass lines and powerfully progressive riffs where the group really do let the music do the talking and show they're not afraid to crank the music up once in a while. There's also the penultimate track “Dying Giant” which samples Peter Finch's 'Mad as Hell' speech from the 1976 film Network, and it's eerily relevant given the current economical climate and seems only even more poignant and dramatic played over the music.

While the lyrical themes featured on this record cover such negativities as the recession, war, disaster, and personal loss, the music itself speaks of and promotes hope and optimism. The Future Belongs to the Brave is only one minute shy of an hour of glorious music and is probably the closest thing we'll ever get to bite-sized post-rock pop songs.

--Rich Taylor