The United Sons of Toil are a collective deeply rooted in the grinding noise and math rock that bubbled up from the Midwest during the mid '90s. This is not suggest that the Sons are a retro band in any sense, simply that the hoarse vocals, guitar damage, starts and stops, and sometimes-convoluted arrangements and time signatures hark back to a time when labels like Touch and Go, AmRep, and Dischord lorded over the indie-rock landscape. A number of other influences rear their ugly heads during the course of "Hope is not a strategy," notably the angular post-hardcore of outfits like Hoover and Unwound as well as the decidedly socialist bent of the sparse lyrics. Indeed, songs that compare family dynamics with political systems put the Sons squarely in the Gang-of-Four school of populist deconstruction. "Hope is not a strategy" is the Sons' first manifesto -- a document of eight pummeling and abrasive songs that envelop distant cries for justice and freedom. RIYL: Tar, Unwound, Shellac, The Jesus Lizard, Hoover