(Andy Synn gets his teeth into the new album from Darkest Hour, out now on MNRK Heavy)
Darkest Hour have been one of my favourite bands for… well, if you want a clue as to just how long, the shop where I bought my first copy of So Sedated, So Secure as a kid has been closed for about twenty years.
Which either makes me the worst possible person to review their new album due to my obvious bias… or the best, since I know exactly what they’re capable of and am therefore best prepared to judge them accordingly.
Let’s hope it’s the latter, shall we?
Truth be told, whether you’re a long-time fan or a total newcomer to the band, you’re probably going to find a lot to love about Perpetual |Terminal, even if it’s not – despite what you might read elsewhere – their best album.
But while that seminal triptych of Hidden Hands…, Undoing Ruin, and Deliver Us is probably never going to be beaten, that doesn’t mean that Darkest Hour have just decided to rest upon their laurels and trade off their past glories, and it’s clear that (for the most part at least) they’ve approached their tenth album with the same “give no fucks, take no prisoners” attitude as they did their debut back in their day.
As a result, crafty cuts like “A Prayer to the Holy Death” and the opening title-track serve as a stellar showcase of just why so many people love the band, and could easily serve as a jumping-on point for a whole new generation of fans yet to experience the joys of Mike Schleibaum’s instantly-recognisable brand of thrashy Melodic Death Metal-core riffage (patent still pending) and John Henry’s vicious, venom-spitting vocals (which, with one or two notable exceptions that we’ll come to in a moment, show no signs of mellowing with age).
Sure, there’s an argument to be made that the band might be sticking a little too close to their own well-established (and admittedly formidable) formula at times but, considering it’s been almost exactly seven years since we last heard from them I think they can be forgiven for maybe wanting to spend a little bit of time just kicking out the jams and giving their audience exactly what they want (and, let me tell you, there’s at least a handful of tracks here, including early highlight “Societal Bile”, that deftly live up to the band’s legacy).
That being said, as much as I love the band’s signature blend of hooky heaviness and punky, pissed-off intensity, the most interesting parts of Perpetual | Terminal – for me at least – are where the quintet (now including talented new lead guitarist Nico Santora) push things just that little bit further towards one extreme or another, suggesting that there’s still room for the band to evolve a little, even after almost thirty years.
“New Utopian Dream”, for example, leans a little darker and heavier than the band’s standard modus operandi, and while this isn’t the first time the group have flirted with a bleaker, broodier sound it still feels that little bit weightier and deathlier than the group’s “traditional” approach.
Conversely, the simmering light-and-shade slow burn of “One With the Void” opts for a more moodily melodic angle, one which allows John Henry to showcase his increasingly confident and character-rich croon while also letting the track’s punchier moments hit even harder by contrast.
Sure, not everything works (the mawkish Metalcore pseudo-balladry of “Mausoleum” in particular slips way too far into by-the-numbers Bullet For My Valentine territory), but when it all comes together – as it does during fantastic finale “Goddess of War, Give Me Something to Die For”, which finds the band giving full rein to their most epic and anthemic inclinations – Perpetual | Terminal makes it very clear that while Darkest Hour might be old dogs these days, and thus maybe finding it a little harder to learn some new tricks (though not for lack of trying), their collective bite (one or two blunt teeth aside) is still just as potent as their belligerent bark.