Darkest Hour is phenomenal. 'Deliver Us' is a bad-ass CD, with a kick-ass opening (Doomsayer), some bad-ass singles (Demon(s), Ethereal Drain, Paradox with Flies) and some wild cover art. Going back to 2005, I found something just as bad-ass: 'Convalescence.' And with 2009 here, Darkest Hour is keeping the two-year gap between releases a-going with their newest addition, 'The Eternal Return.'One thing you'll notice is that D.H. hasn't lost a thing. None of the band's appendages have grown numb over the years; all the blood is flowing as it should and the group is as united as ever. The disc is, from start to finish, loud, hard, heavy and kick-ass.
The other thing you'll notice, upon completion, is that there are no intermissions. In 'Undoing Ruin,' you had the acoustic instrumental 'Pathos' and the heavier instrumental, 'Ethos.' In 'Deliver Us,' you had the T.S. Eliot-themed 'Light at the Edge of the World.' In 'Eternal Return,' you have no breaks, no instrumentals - only a collection of ten hard-hitting songs, complete with great solos, catchy riffs, insane drums and the signature vocals of one John Henry.
The disc opens strong with 'Devolution of Flesh' and 'Death Worship,' and the strong 'Tides' follows with a time-change and a kick-ass solo in the middle. The even stronger 'No God' follows and is phenomenal, with a distinct intro, heavy verses and a great bridge segment that preceeds that signature melody you heard in the beginning of the track.
'Bitter' is quick bridge between the first half of the album and the second, but don't interpret that as if the tone or the sound of the disc changes. Nay, the heavy keeps coming and continues till the very last second of the kick-ass 'Into the Grey.'
Darkest Hour is a one-of-a-kind group and, simply put, a master of the metalcore genre. I have two words concerning their latest release: buy it.
