Album Review: Darkest Hour – Perpetual | Terminal (MNRK Heavy)

Darkest Hour are back, and they will release their much-anticipated tenth album, Perpetual | Terminal on 23rd February 2024 via MNRK Heavy.

An album about adapting and surviving, which is quite telling when you consider the immense career that Darkest Hour have had. A band that has weathered many storms, had many highs and lows, and continue to push as hard as possible. Case in point, this brand-new album, which finds the band on fine form. Delivering a collection of tracks that cross genre landscapes boldly. From death metal to thrash metal, from melodic metal to speed metal, all with an incredible amount of confidence.

Confidence that exists for a good reason though. Perpetual | Terminal is a very strong record overall, and a hefty reminder of this band’s unforgettable metal power. Power that comes from a heavy anthem like the title track, which features big melodeath style riffs and some effective melody, and power that comes from the chaotic intensity of Societal Bile. Two sides of the Darkest Hour sound, and two sides that hit hard.

There’s a glorious amount of heft coming from the instruments, but when they switch to a more melodic sound, they sound just as big. A Prayer to the Holy Death is a fantastic example of this, and the guitar solo is the stuff dreams are made of. Though, there can be no ignoring the vocals, as they are pure scathing savagery. Sounding particularly devilish on the chunky groove of The Nihilist Undone and really grim on the dark moodiness of One with the Void. The latter, a track that has clean singing too, is mighty grand sounding.

Though there are plenty more grand moments to come. Amor Fati being a short, instrumental carry-on from the previous track, before Love is Fear brings back the thumping thrashy speed. The neck muscles will be working overtime on this track, especially when the tempo drops in the following New Utopian Dream. Pure chunky mayhem, and Darkest Hour sounding so damn heavy.

Credit where credit is due, Perpetual | Terminal certainly lacks filler, with pretty much every track being necessary listening. The heavy metal thrills just keep on coming and the overall anthemic quality of the album can’t be understated. How about the melodic drama of Mausoleum? Or the frenzy of speed and heaviness that comes from My Only Regret? A track with some old-school thrashy riffs and soloing.

Darkest Hour just keeps on killing it, ending this phenomenal release with the grandest track of all, Goddess of War, Give Me Something to Die For. An A+ f**king track on an album filled with A+ tracks. There’s no doubt at all that Perpetual | Terminal is an album of the year contender through and through.

Darkest Hour – Perpetual | Terminal Track Listing:

1. Perpetual | Terminal
2. Societal Bile
3. A Prayer to the Holy Death
4. The Nihilist Undone
5. One with the Void
6. Amor Fati
7. Love is Fear
8. New Utopian Dream
9. Mausoleum
10. My Only Regret
11. Goddess of War, Give Me Something to Die For

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