A Band in Hope by The Matches

A Band in Hope (formerly The Mad Silentist) is the third studio album by The Matches and was released on March 15, 2008 in Australia and Europe and March 18, 2008 in the US. Like their previous album Decomposer, A Band in Hope features multiple producers, though fewer this time around. According to frontman Shawn Harris' blog, the album was created in a period of despair due to the record sales of Decomposer. Instead of following up with the sister album titled The Mad Silentist, the band scrapped many of the old songs (only 4 remain in the final cut) and re-wrote the album. The new album, as Harris states, sways between hope and despair, and the hope one gets when they feel disillusioned and abandoned.