Darkest Hour

The Eternal Return

Victory/June 23, 2009

Every other year we here in Bearland are graced with a new Darkest Hour release to beat our metal ear drums. An elite click of four friends from back in the Snellville days became a DH bandwhore, we love(d) the group, love(d) their show, and for the most part, can all agree that the band probably makes just about the best metal out there, consistently. In Darkest Hour’s sixth foray into metal history they release ‘The Eternal Return’, which is an alleged ‘return’ to their roots of rocking riffs, that are undeniably bad to the ass. Let’s see where my feelings lie on these matters, shall we?

Alright, you can count me in as one of the bigger fans of this band, I’ve liked loved everything this band has done, and to fully realize ‘Return’ we must venture into the past of  the D to the H. The last cd ‘Deliver Us’ was a technical brain basher that contains probably some of the most mind boggling guitar doodling that I’ve ever heard. Yes there was a tad bit of singing on the disc, but that didn’t bother me much, the song that had the singing in it blew up at the end and kicked mucho asso. 2005’s ‘Undoing Ruin’ is considered by me to quite possibly be the peak of the DH career, it’s not my favorite of their catalogue, but it is in the runner-up spot. It is their catchiest record to date and has some seriously solid tunes. Sound the Surrender and Convalescence are timeless songs that will never get old. 04’s ‘Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation’ is easily the thrashiest cd to come out in the 2000’s, if you disagree, ask the Bear that eats people, he’s a musical genius. Hidden Hands is not the easiest cd to listen to, but if you like fast guitars and drums, this is the fastest. It’s seriously, bizzaro thrash. It also has the solo to end all solo’s.  Then of course there’s the pup that started it all: 2001’s So Sedated So Secure, my personal favorite metal album of all time. This disc is riddled with glorious riffs that are beyond significant to each song, you hear the riff and you know exactly which song it is. SSSS is one of those 5/5 records that stands in the halls of metal rockdom and will live forever. It’s a Wolf Necessity to be exact.

It’s 2009 and Darkest Hour have a new guitarist, and a new record, and I’m not sure if I like it as much as I’ve liked everything previous from these duders. All the reviews on the interweb love this disc and I think I’m the only person out there that can’t find where this cd belongs in his box of treasures, or if it even needs to be in the treasure chest at all. This cd is simply put, boring to me. Aside from the initial single ‘No God’, nothing on this cd grabs me. ‘Tides is cool and so is ‘Into the Grey, but honestly, I couldn’t think of a riff from either of those songs in my head right now, and I can do that with like every Darkest Hour song from the previous five records. Two to three weeks into a new DH release and I’m all over it, but right now I find myself listening to other new things out there that are, sadly, better. This cd is somewhat of a return to  SSSS, but no song on this record has a signature to it. Every song sounds nearly the same to me, nothing really stands out as making each song its own. It lacks style and creativity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s metal, it’s heavy, and it’s loud, but that doesn’t make a cd good. That’s just what this cd is for me, it’s good, but Darkest Hour has always been great, and good isn’t good enough for me from my favorite metal band. [2.5/5]