Hope conspiracy.

FOR THE TRONGS of people out there wondering where the Hope Conspiracy's been for the last few years, the hardcore kids dying to hear some follow-up to their seminal 2003 opus Endnote, it may come as a bit of a shock to hear singer Kevin Baker express displeasure with that album and the rest of their catalog.

Listening to Death Knows Your Name, the band's latest and greatest, might help explain Baker's sentiments on the matter. Endnote killed. This one kills Endnote.

"If you're not happy after you leave the studio, that fucking sucks," Baker says. "I listen to the old stuff, and I think things could have been better. We wanted to be satisfied."

Baker says things fell apart for the Hope Conspiracy after recording for Endnote wrapped. The ensuing touring cycle and a revolving door of guitarists left Baker and his cohorts bored and a little confused about where the band was heading.

"We got burnt out," says Baker. "Half the fun of being in a band is playing new stuff. We just felt like we were going through the motions, but the whole time we were like, 'This doesn't feel good'."

So band members went their separate ways. Baker and guitarist Jim Carroll started a band called Bars, while guitarist Neeraj Kane continued on with his other projects, Suicide File and Holy Roman Empire.

Fans who've lamented the Hope Conspiracy's conspicuous absence from the hardcore scene should thank their lucky stars the band put on the brakes when it did. The brief breather provided Hope Conspiracy a much needed recharge, and an artistic distance from its music that the members wouldn't have had otherwise. Following a little more than a year of sewing their sundry musical oats, the band's members broached the topic of making another record.

"There was no push for doing anything substantial," says Baker. "It was kind of a fresh start, so to speak."

With the pressure off, Hope Conspiracy bloomed with newfound artistic energy. The resulting recordings, Hang Your Cross EP and the full-length Death Knows Your Name, find the band in a different place musically than they were four years prior, exploring a darker, heavier aesthetic while at the same time opening the door to more complex song structures.

"We just wanted to write a nasty art record that wasn't cheesy and cheap," says Baker. "We have no parameters that we're following. I think it's real honest."

Death Knows Your Name is about as raw as they come, in large measure due to the production work of Kurt Ballou (guitarist for Converge). The guitars are full and powerful, while the vocals and drums sound live. Ballou rarely leaves a distinct mark on a record he's engineering, but rather coaxes every last bit of essence out of every band that walks into his Salem, MA studio, Godcity.

"He knew what kind of record we wanted to do," says Baker. "He strengthens the strong points of a band like a real producer should."

Death Knows Your Name also marks the end of the band's relationship with Equal Vision Records, which put out the first two Hope Conspiracy full lengths. Baker says after taking so much time off and returning with new enthusiasm for the music, he couldn't see returning to a label he no longer recognized from its past as a major force in the hardcore scene.

Instead, the band moved to Deathwish, a record label owned by their long-time friends Tre McCarthy and Converge frontman Jake Bannon.

"We have more in common with them--what we like and what we don't like--than a label like EVR," says Baker. "Why be mixed in with a bunch of bands that you really don't feel you have anything in common with? They [Deathwish] genuinely love the band. I don't think anyone over at EVR ever did. When it came down to it, it just seemed like the natural thing to do."

For now, Baker says, Hope Conspiracy will tour a little, but members will maintain their commitments to their other bands. Baker's just happy to be playing the music he always wanted to play with his friends.

"As far as other people expecting something from us, we couldn't care less," Baker says. "This is for us. We're going where we wanted to go."

The vinyl version of Death Knows Your Name is available from Malfunction Records.