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It's not a bad album by any means, but it's far and away from the greatness of The Morning Never Came. I'm surprised you gave it a masterpiece scor. I'd rate in the high 60's. To me, STS seems to become one of those bands with spectacular debut who then try all their career to match it, without success. I hope I'm wrong though.

High 60s? This album belongs no lower than an 80/100. It's a tremendous album!

What so many bands of this nature lack is the ability to keep the listener focused while they meander on in that slow, brooding tempo. My Dying Bride is a prime example, I think. They have flourishes of brilliance throughout these songs that are only epic in length and tedium. Swallow The Sun, however, maintain that subtle, unavoidable hook throughout their songs. Though they're slow, they still manage to captivate.

At least, that's how I feel. A killer album, this. Definitely worthy of a 90/100!

I only heard the title track and it do sounds promising...the grunts are pretty damn good! Again an album on the to buy list!

I had tried to explain my reasons for liking this album in the review, but feel free to disagree, to each his own. But if this is 60, then what is Ghosts of Loss, 40? It may not have been 83 I gave it way back, but on this site 40 is an album not recommended at all. Hope, to me, is just as good as TMNC, but in a different sort of way, actually being a little more gentle, and a little more uplifting in the process. I actually happen to understand why the title is what it is. And, as review says, it passed my criterion for doomdeath - while listening to the album I felt insulated from the world, not worried anymore about what goes outside.

High 60, according to the rating rules on this site, is fair, neighbouring very good, which is exactly what this album is, imo. A bit less than very good, that is, but good. Ghosts of Los... hmm, I'd rate that a 55. Medium.

These seem like very low ratings comparing to the average weekly review rating, I guess, and that's not because most of you tend to overrate (I don't think that's the case), but because most of you guys don't really respect those rating rules. I'm pretty sure in reality there aren't that many masterpieces and outstanding albums released every week as they seem to be by looking at your ratings. For example, this week you have 8 outstanding albums + 1 masterpiece out of 12 reviews. That's a lot. Even Manowar got a "very good" score, which is shocking. This happens, I think, because reviewers don't really respect the rating rules of the site. And they are right not to, because these rules aren't very well designed. 60 is "fair", which means good, since it's below "very good", but the human tendency is to give a better score than 60 to something we think it's good. A score in the 70 also seems low to someone who's preparing to rate an album which he considers "very good". So he'll give it an 80, maybe even a 90, which are rates our minds associate with great quality, rather than 70. At least that's what I think, and I think you need to revise those rating rules.

So, rating by the rules, I give Hope a 68. If I were to rate by what score I'm naturally inclined to associate with quality, and comparing to most metal outputs, I'd probably give it a 78.

As for Hope, even though it's more melodic than GOL, I don't perceive it as having the brilliance TMNC had. It doesn't seem to have that spark, and songs don't seem that memorable to me. I listened to it 3 times when it came out and I never felt the need to return to it since, although I still return regularly to TMNC. I'm curious if one or two years from now you'll still have Hope in your playlist, as much as TMNC. My bet is that you'll come and say you perhaps marked it to high, like you do now with GOL. Although I maybe wrong.

whats with you guys and not liking ghosts of loss? that is the first album i bought from them and I absolutely love it, especially starting it off with that 12 minute song. I like all their stuff and cant wait to hear their new cd. Just curious why it seems there is no love for ghosts of loss?

The numeric system woudl never be perfect, no question. I am not sure I am trying to answer for everybody, but I am trying really hard not to overquote, but fall guilty of that from time to time.
As far as me liking this particular album, I do like it a lot, and These Hours of Despair, Hope and Empty Skies were on almost constant rotation in my car (to your point that I probably won't come back to the album). I gave it 2-3 general listens at first, to get the first impression. With TMNC it was love from the first sight, while the Ghosts it was definitely "man, I need more time here". I fell for Hope from the 2nd listen. Then I listened paying attention to the details, to be able to describe things for the review, wrote it, put it away and had the album on for a few more times over the span of 2 weeks, to see if the first impression will wear off. It didn't for me. So, of course we can debate whether it is a "masterpiece" or not, but for me this album ranks at least as high as TMNC (I know your opinion already).
Hope has a very interesting emotion for me. It is almost gentle and healing, unlikt TMNC, which was darker and more horror noire, like I said in the review. Hope is soothing.
It is a pleasure when someone disagrees with you, but instead of slamming we can exchange opinions in a civil manner.

I don't know, I have had the hardest time for that album to click for me completely. And I enjoy long protracted laboring doomdeath style. Ghosts seems to be just plodding way too much.

Gryeath review, agree with Too cold for tears... in fact if it was up to me I would remove the entire song from the album. But I love the slow paced songs in GOL. Old Katatonia could be another band reference