Hopeless Hopes

Hopeless Hopes is Martyr's debut full-length album. It was released independently on November 5, 1997 when the band members were aged between 17 to 23 years old.

A remastered re-issue was released by Galy Records in October 2006 with four extra tracks.

Martyr is a technical death-thrash band from Quebec, Canada who play some very intelligent, complex, and aggressive metal. Their debut album Hopeless Hopes has nine songs, each containing plenty of tempo changes, melodic guitar leads, and dual harmonies. Guitarists Daniel Mongrain and Pier-Luc Lampron present a tight and vicious guitar tandem. They inject loads of variation and subtleties in their riffs, and move from blistering speed attacks to mid-paced standard crunching effectively, giving the album its great dynamics. And both guitarists contribute some damn fine uplifting and melodic leads. Bassist Francois Mongrain does well to make himself heard on this album. And rightly so, because the guy can shred! Most of the time he follows behind the guitarists, but oftentimes he thrusts forth some licks that just make your mouth foam! And due to the album’s superior production, his bass comes across nice and clear. And I’ve always thought it was cool when you can hear the bassist’s fingers move across the frets, making that slight scraping sound. Drummer Francois Richard is pretty rock solid also, keeping perfect time with the other members. Francois injects enough variation in his playing to keep things interesting. Handling vocal duties on the album are both guitarist Daniel and bassist Francois.The music is just too damn enticing, and after repeated listens ,with music this complex, it really helps to hear every instrument clearly, and with good balance.

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