Darkest Hour are a US metal band and this is their eleventh album.
Hot on the heels of 2024’s Perpetual | Terminal, Darkest Hour are now back with the 42-minute Suffer Divine. Darkest Hour long ago perfected their template for combining hardcore and melodic death metal, and this fusion has resulted in so much quality output from the band over the years. What will this new record bring us?
Well, Suffer Divine continues the band’s legacy with both style and substance.
The hardcore-infused metallic assault of Suffer Divine is a potent one. Imbued with emotion, the songs are driven by deeply felt fury. It’s a marriage of passion and precision, as the band attack with deliberate intent, while also giving vent to their berserker side that just wants to rage. Basically, it’s a record that channels its raw aggression in productive ways, resulting in a collection of songs that hit hard and fast and don’t look back.
The music is sharp and fast, and very moreish. Darkest Hour know very well how to bring together aggression and memorability, making for songs that simply demand to be heard. The riffs bite deep and the melodies wrap around your brain like colourful barbed wire. There are expressions of atmospheric texture dotted around, enhancing the whole, (The Unforgiving Hand in particular), allowing the controlled chaos to hit harder when it’s fully unleashed. There are some pretty blazing solos too. Darkest Hour have a talent for this sort of thing, and Suffer Divine is murderously good.
A new Darkest Hour release is always something to be celebrated, and what Suffer Divine has to offer is effortlessly enjoyable. If melodic metallic heaviness is your mind of thing, then Suffer Divine should definitely be on your radar. It’s an extremely satisfying listen, with both catchiness and nastiness in spades.
Very highly recommended.
