Surely there's an easy way to remove these metal bands?

These are the heat shrink hose clamps common on my Freightliner.

The metal wires are there to support the hose when under max boost to keep the hose from ballooning out and popping off.

 

I was waiting for the OP to explain why, they also are there so the hose doesn't have a blowout. removing them creates more of an issue with their self-destruction than anything else.

 

Just replace the hose. They are lucky to last 3 years. But the new hose will also have the wires on it.

 

Well I assumed he was talking about the solid crimped on hose clamps. I know I had to cut some off before because they were leaking and replace with regular clamps. I was not talking about the spiral wound wires on the middle of the hose.

 

Yeah I was too, but I've seen some pretty weird stuff in my time, from people cutting holes in mufflers to using toilet paper filters for fuel filters to taking the rust resistant coating off of new chains with a wire brush.