Darkest Hour – The Human Romance

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Century Media
Produced by Peter Wichers

Darkest Hour is a band that commonly gets called metalcore. In an era when that distinction alone passes for a disparaging remark, fans are right to get defensive. Truly defining metalcore as a genre is difficult when bands as diverse as Converge, Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada get the tag, but Darkest Hour sounds very little like any of these bands. Instead, their sound is something like what would have happened if At the Gates continued recording albums after Slaughter of The Soul instead of breaking up, or if it had been a somewhat less radical shift between Carcass‘ Heartwork and Swansong LPs.

The Human Romance is perhaps the finest embodiment of the band’s melodic death metal aspirations yet. Narrowing the album to its highlights is practically impossible. The World Engulfed In Flames storms in after a brief intro track and cracks every skull in sight. Savor The Kill brilliantly showcases Darkest Hour’s approach to integrating clean vocals, that more like The Red Chord than Miss May I retains the aggression of the screamed lines while injecting just enough melody to make them singable. Love As A Weapon shows the band’s more sentimental side but still shreds flesh with every riff and vocal line. Your Everyday Disaster packs years of aggression into a sub-three minute framework. Terra Solaris does the opposite and stretches a set of harmonized riffs and gorgeous melodies into a nearly nine-minute long instrumental track.

Unfortunately, Darkest Hour’s dubious classification as a metalcore act puts them in an odd place in the metal world as a whole. One one hand, more serious death metal fans are unlikely to give them a chance. On the other, the kids who go out to package tours that feature Darkest Hour alongside the likes of Born of Osiris and As Blood Runs Black probably won’t be able to fully appreciate their workmanlike, old school approach and will cast them aside for more immediate, radio-ready metalcore. The Human Romance may not bridge the gap between these disparate groups, but for open-minded metalheads on both sides of the aisle, melodic death metal hardly gets any better.

“ the finest embodiment of the band’s melodic death metal ”

Tracklist: Terra Noctunus / The World Engulfed In Flames / Savor The Kill / Man & Swine / Love As A Weapon / Your Everyday Disaster / Violent By Nature / Purgatory / Severed Into Separates / Wound / Terra Solaris / Beyond The Life You Know

Written by Brad Sanders
More: 2011, Albums, Death Metal, Darkest Hour