Album Review: Darkest Hour – Perpetual | Terminal
Reviewed by Liam True
Darkest Hour are one of metals best kept secrets. Considering they've been around since 1995 and had their debut album out five years later in 2000, they've never really been in the public spotlight. Even a song in Guitar Hero 5 didn't help with a boost. They still have their own diehard fans who eagerly await new music from them with each passing album. 2017's Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora was our last taste from the melo-deth maestros, and it feels like they've upped their level from there.
The title track Perpetual Terminal opens up with a slow guitar harmony before we switch into the crunchy speed metal laiden riff and the punchy snare from drummer Travis Orbin cutting through the distinctive growl of frontman John Henry. Societal Bile is where the album really picks up in terms of speed & agression. The high squeals of a tortured guitar ring through the rest of the album with the duel guitars of Mike Schleibaum & Nico Santora combining melody and gritty fury.
The soloing on the album in particular is some of the best work Darkest Hour have pressed to a disk (or published on a streaming service). If you came here expecting a repeat of Godless... then prepare to have your socks not only blown off, but ripped to shreds in front of you. Love Is Fear crushes your skull with it's gritty riffwork as Henry screams over the quick and hard hitting drum work from Orbin.
Maybe it was the seven years off since the last album, but throughout the record you can feel the pissed off nature in Henrys vocals. One With The Void & Amor Fati, however, both pull a short U-turn. Still two very strong guttural attacks from the band, the majority of the two songs are slower paced work with the metalcore elements that have pushed Darkest Hour to the forefront of the underground metalcore pyramid. And as the album ends with the beautifully written Goddess Of War, Give Me Something To Die For you're in awe.
Somehow Darkest Hour have come back from being undetected within the metal scene to bringing out possibly the most compelling album of 2024 so far. The next time someone mentions that guitar solo's are dead and aren't cool anymore, show them this record and watch their smug smile turn into the realisation that they're wrong
