Darkest Hour - UndoingRuin

Wed 29th Jun, 2005 in Music Reviews

While we may never get as far as a genre labelled ‘retro metal’ what Canada’s Darkest Hour are about is certainly going back to a time when metal was pure. When it had nothing to do with hair spray, solos for the sake of solos, rapping, and competing with techno to see who had the faster and backbreaking beats.

Easily an album that could have existed comfortably 20 years ago, it’s a timely reminder of how far metal has come since the likes of Metallica’s Ride the Lightning and early Slayer. And while the album title Undoing Ruin surely refers to trying to right some of the wrongs in the world today (hypocrisy and the nonchalance evident in the brutality of politics and society) it could also be about getting back to a time when metal was pure, it’s motives being about exposing injustice through aggressive release and coping with inner turmoil in a way reflective of how we feel on the inside, not a toned-down-for-appearances-sake version.

The album kicks off in rousing fashion, ambient noise bleeding into crashing drums and guitars with so much crunch they ‘snap, crackle and pop’. With a Thousand Words to Say But One is a full-force statement of intent. The songs ebbs and flows, rising and falling in waves as singer John Henry waxes positive “Through the rain we’ll see the beauty in life again”.

Pathos and Ethos are brief instrumentals that reflect the album’s unspoken subconscious. The former, an acoustically minded thought, where hope overcomes melancholy. The latter follows on picking up the tempo in a celebration of having overcome. Joyously tracked twin-guitar interplay soar before District Divided crashes the party. Dealing with the labelling and categorising not only of being a consumer but also becoming defined by geography, District Divided is a shout out to those who think they can control us all:

“We know your plans don’t include us
That’s why we’ve made our own destroyers of culture
Insatiable their appetite”.

Feverish in it’s pace, Undoing Ruin is a tightly-knit collection of songs with an old-school sound delivering a message for today. Free from the novelty of metal-revivalism, Darkest Hour are sincere and honest and you feel this strongly throughout the album. At the heart of all this is Convalescence, with eyes wide open and a sense of realism, coming from a time when naivety has no place and romantic idealism is a foolish religion:
 
“Confinement binds you
Nothing scares me
Nothing thrills me”.

Darkest Hour may be looking to then past for their musical inspiration but they are definitely facing in the right direction with their new album.