Darkest Hour

Undoing Ruin (Victory)
by Scott Hefflon

Darkest Hour are one of the better American bands stealing the oft-stolen Swedish melodic death metal style. They’ve been doing it for years, perhaps even a decade, which means they’ve been swiping it longer than most of the Swedish bands did it to begin with. A perfect crossover band for people whose metal palate isn’t refined enough to get why Dark Tranquillity and dozens of other bands smoke these fools and people who think most American metal is as monotonous as hardcore, but without the quaint belief structure we all outgrow when mom and dad stop covering the bills. Darkest Hour has some tasty fills, but mostly pretty simple duel leads that soar and don’t take more than an hour to learn. Ain’t no Shadows Fall or Avenged Sevenfold guitarwork here. No dreds or eyeliner, either, the band looking as metal as, like, the guy wearing the faded Slayer shirt who offered you a shot of Jäg at that cool party last weekend. Anyone into the smarter American metal bands (are we up to three now? Does that qualify as a scene?) probably already knows these guys, and if yer new here, well, fake it, fucker.
(www.victoryrecords.com)