Sean McLennan

Approaching their 30-year mark as a band, Darkest Hour maneuver with an unrivaled level of dedication to developing their melodic mashup of heavy metal and hardcore. While always remaining true to who they are at heart and operating with a punk rock mentality, they continually embrace new methods of expression to detail the myriad of moods that inspire each album. Founding member and vocalist John Henry is aware of the fact that he’s invested his whole life into creating music with the band—a realization full of complexities, many of which feed into the band’s compelling new album, Perpetual|Terminal, out now via MNRK Heavy.

“This has been such a constant in my life that I can’t live without,” says Henry. “Any time we ever felt dragged down, something would happen where we would write a song, or we would do a tour, and it’d be, like, okay, we can’t stop. This is what we know. This is what we love, and we love doing it too much.”

In addition to further introspection, Henry allowed that, sort of, awareness to guide and help shape the lyrical contents of the new record.

“A lot of the themes that reoccur on the album are about survival and rebirth. After touring on the last record, I was at a pretty low point in my life. I was not happy, and I felt super depressed,” Henry shares. “I kind of pulled myself out of that in a bunch of different ways. I wrote a lot about that and I felt like, (by) doing this new record, that I had died and been reborn, to put it in an extreme way. It’s also about the survival of the band and how we’ve been doing this for so long.”

Fueling the new album’s instrumental elements are founding member and riff machine Mike Schleibaum, newest member and solo sensation Nico Santora, drumming dynamo Travis Orbin, and the steady-handed Aaron Deal, who come together to strike a near-perfect balance between the band’s customary thrashing intensity and melodic sensibilities. Dueling riff dynamics, passionate shredding, and spirited vocals generate a captivating and mellifluous atmosphere on Perpetual|Terminal, a potent portrayal of Darkest Hour’s sound three decades in. It’s that balance of elements that makes the new album all the more dynamic, whether it be the ruminative qualities revealed through the moody pulse of “One With the Void” and the acoustic, multi-layered, “Mausoleum,” or tracks like “Societal Bile,” “Love Is Fear,” and “My Only Regret,” which highlight the band’s devotion to the high-powered thrash and death metal that shaped them. Those are all sandwiched between opener “Perpetual|Terminal” and closer “Goddess of War, Give Me Something to Die For,” two perfectly placed bangers.

“We took a long time to write this record and I think that it really shows,” says Henry. “It’s always a trick when we’re doing a new album. We always want to try new stuff, but we want to maintain the identity of the band … I’ve always put a lot of myself and a lot of different emotions into these lyrics—maybe too much sometimes. The band has always been a way for me to express what I’m feeling. And there’s no better feeling for me than to write something personal and get out and share it with people and scream it and have people scream it back at me. It’s the ultimate therapy for me.”

Perpetual|Terminal is available now from MNRK Heavy. Follow Darkest Hour on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.