Darkest Hour – Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora (Review)

Darkest Hour are a US metal band and this is their ninth album.

Darkest Hour are one of the original and best proponents of combining hardcore, metal and thrash.

One of the first to take the Scandinavian melodic death metal sound and wrap it around a fiery hardcore energy, Darkest Hour have also been one of the most consistent of the bands to lead the way in NWOAHM, always producing quality albums, of which this new one is the ninth.

The band have been around over two decades at this point. After so long it would be tempting to think they might have run out of steam, but a single listen to Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora reveals a band that are still vibrant and relevant in 2017. There’s still passion and fire here, plenty of it.

Darkest Hour’s songs have always been sharp and cutting, with razorblade riffs and snarling, charismatic vocals. This new album is no different in this regard.

The songs on this album balance melodic riffs against their more muscular, harder-hitting counterparts in a way that takes the best from both worlds. The latter means that there’s more than enough power, force and strength across the album to satisfy, while the former takes care of the emotive content, making sure that the band don’t lose one of the more compelling things about them.

Darkest Hour are catchy, memorable, vicious and engaging form the very start. I always like the fact that they also have a considered, reflective side too, which is largely hidden in the waves of riffs and brutal distortion, but is still there nonetheless.

The tracks are written with a focus on making them high-impact, while also including enough depth of content to give them longevity. Darkest Hour have never been about creating throwaway music. There’s always a lot of dynamic energy to the songs, and the interplay between the guitars and the vocals is always a great thing to hear. When they sync up perfectly to totally encapsulate what the band is trying to do, it’s a hairs on the back of the neck kind of moment.

Darkest Hour’s latest album manages to capture the best parts of what they have put out over the years, which means it’s definitely one of their stronger releases. A good test of an album is how much you want to listen to it again once you’ve just finished it. In the case of Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora, the answer is “a lot”.

If you’re into metal that’s heavy, melodic, and has plenty of bite, I fail to see how you can dislike this.

Essential listening.