20th February 2024
It is hard to believe that Darkest Hour have been with us for almost thirty years. Although the band has seen a number of members pass through its ranks, two original members remain (vocalist John Henry and guitarist Mike Schleibaum) and a further two (bassist Aaron Deal and drummer Travis Orbin) have been with the band for more than ten years, while guitarist Nico Santora plays on his first album since joining in 2021. During their career, they have steadily honed their hardcore and thrash-tinged melodic death metal, releasing a series of excellent albums in the process. With the longest gap between albums in their career (Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora was released in 2017), Darkest Hour return as vital and biting as they have ever been.
Beginning with the title track, Perpetual | Terminal sets a marker for the rest of the album from the outset. Introduced with melodic chords, the opening builds steadily until inflammatory thrash and melodeath riffs crunch, as Orbin’s hammering drums torpedo the listener. Littered with intricate guitar, the song also finds space for introspective acoustic moments which mirror the split nature of the lyrics. Paradoxically titled, the song (and indeed album) combines the notion of a never-ending cycle of endings and beginnings and the continuous process of giving oneself to a pursuit and being renewed through it. I gave everything to the night / Gave everything for the song / When I lost myself to learn / Everyday I am reborn.
"The record's theme centres around the duality of survival while embracing rebirth,” says Schleibaum. "We keep killing parts of ourselves to make new parts and survive. The story of the record is the story of the band. We're still here, and we're giving the world a body of work that's representative of our music today. We've realized relationships, tours, good times, everything that seems to give life meaning, is terminal — and will inevitably end. Nevertheless, we're 46-year-old dudes who love this music enough to put up with the trials and tribulations of being artists in a touring band.”
Darkest Hour are not afraid of playing with convention and Perpetual | Terminal’s strength lies in the variety not only across the album but within individual tracks. A Prayer To The Holy Death and The Nihilist Undone annihilate in parts and wander into incredibly well delivered intense melody in others, while the short and reflective instrumental Amor Fati contains some ornately caliginous guitar. Societal Bile (a critique of modern societal norms and a call to action for the protagonist to seize control of their fate) is a feverish screamer in which Henry scowls with some his most vehement metalcore vocals on the album. Sick in life, dying in debt / Left to rot with all the rest / The survivor's disease / Has given me everything / And I don't wanna live in this fatalistic / Sick, fucking twisted, exiling existence.
Mausoleum begins with reflective acoustic guitar and Henry’s darkly pastoral and striking clean vocals. Revisiting paradoxical themes, the song deals with inner conflict, the loss of inner peace, overwhelming emotions that indicate emergence from a place of darkness, and the thin line between love and hate. When nothing is wrong / Nothing seems right / The silence is gone / With violence of pride / All in a day / All in a night / Mausoleum. Between the verses, Mausoleum explodes with anarchic outrage and odium (with more paradoxically melodic guitar in the background) before returning to the quieter but no less anguished lyrics. Now I’ve been in love / Like I’ve been in hate / It happens to soon / It happened too late And now we’re entombed / Out of the grave and into the womb / Mausoleum. As if to wipe away some of the reflective moments on the album, Mausoleum is followed by the two-minute hostile rampage of My Only Regret, complete with a predatory but enthralling guitar solo.
Throughout the album, the band operate sensationally as a team and nowhere is this more apparent than on the longest and last track on the album, the irresistible Goddess of War, Give Me Something To Die For. After an introduction that builds resplendently (initially acoustically and then with the entire band) for over two and a half minutes, the song never relents as Darkest Hour skilfully craft (Deal and Orbin’s interplay during the latter half is exceptional) one of the best songs they have ever recorded.
Few bands produce albums this strong three decades into their career and with their tenth album, Perpetual | Terminal, Darkest Hour have found an admirable balance between their innate power and belligerence and the use of restraint and space. Despite Schleibaum’s concerns that nothing lasts forever, while the band still can, they are going to make the most of every second. For fans, new and old alike, the only thing they will find perpetual is returning to the beginning of the album and listening to it all over again.
Perpetual | Terminal is released on 23rd February 2024 on MNRK Heavy
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