A bastard child born of the mid 90s punk/metal/hardcore movement, Washington, DC’s Darkest Hour combine the passion, energy, and soul of punk/hardcore with the style, speed, vengeance and fury of melodic speed/thrash/death metal. They helped to define the entire New Wave of American Metal sound as one of the pioneers of modern metal/core. A sound that gave the metal and hardcore/punk world the revitalisation it surely needed. This style blended the raw, hardcore punk of the 80s, with the Scandinavian death metal of the 90s and forged a sound that would later become the template for modern metal.
The 11-song album was part of a crowd funding campaign that the band launched earlier this year, with the ultimate tally netting the band well over 100% of the initial goal and allowing them to also create an album beyond their initial expectations. The band chose producer Kurt Ballou (High on Fire, Nails, Converge, Black Breath) for “his obvious genius” (as guitar player Mike Schleibaum said) and recorded the release at Ballou’s Godcity Studio. Artist Shaun Beaudry was commissioned to create a custom painting, giving the album a unique visual identity.
“Working at Godcity was the perfect vibe for this record and Kurt was everything we could have asked for in a producer,” said guitar player Mike Schleibaum. “The passion and experience he brought to the whole album really shows.”
Darkest Hour have since partnered with Southern Lord, which Schleibaum discussed, saying “The band has a long history of working with Greg and Southern Lord, who originally released the vinyl version of The Mark of Judas. While working with Kurt, we became reacquainted with Greg. We’ve always respected Greg’s work ethic, creative prowess and steadfast dedication to quality.”
“Southern Lord is beyond stoked to be working with long time favorites Darkest Hour on their upcoming album!,” offered Southern Lord Records’ founder Greg Anderson. “Their tasteful, seamless fusion of hardcore & metal as well as never ending dedication to underground music is both admirable and praise worthy.”