Darkest Hour
The Human Romance

August 2011
Released: 2011, E1 Music
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Metal-Rules.com UK Team

First I’ve heard of this band despite them being around for nearly 15 years causing all kinds of trouble in the ‘States, but based on this album I'd be tempted to find their previous releases. With a sound that is a mixture of Hardcore and Metal with a few hard rock sensibilities thrown in it’s a very interesting mixture for certain. They keep the heavy side whilst mixing in riffs and runs which would make most hard rock artists sit up and take notice.



Wailing guitars on top of drums which sound like the drummers arms and legs must now be like those of a wrestler as it’s getting so fast all lashed together very stylishly. The album flows well, no disjointed songs or jarring changes in style, even their instrumental track, Terra Solaris, fits in well and showcases that these guys can be musical yet heavy. The only real distractor on the album is the singer who could just be any other shouty screamy metal singer, sadly with that style it’s hard to have a stand out voice. As a whole it works very well sounding like they are their own band and not just imitating band x. y and z like a lot of people do, then again these guys are veterans if after 15 years you hadn’t found your own sound I’d be pretty worried.



If the production sound rings familiar it’s probably because the album was done by Peter Wichers, who has produced albums for the likes of Soilworks and All That Remains. It’s clean and polished with out making it sound like it was done using an instrument emulator program (sadly becoming more and more common with the switch towards self produced and distributed metal albums). Loud rich and heavy as hell!



Reviewer - Neurie