Thursday: Darkest Hour - Tranquil

     We'll get there, people, we'll get there... And in order to do so, this Throwback Thursday post will just be a quickie,  throwing 'er back about a decade to one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite albums by one of my favourite bands.

     Darkest Hour has had a central place in my musical world since I fell in love with 2003's Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation. It's one of those records that is not only awesome musically but also an important part of my musical history and my listening tastes at the time. I listened to the shit out of Hidden Hands.

     But pretty much equally important for me was Darkest Hour's follow-up two years later, 2005's classic Undoing Ruin. I listened to the shit out of this one too, becoming familiar with it back to front, inside and out. Pretty much every track on this album is a gem in its own way, but album closer "Tranquil" has always stood out as especially badass, from its furious riffage to the fact that it closes out the album with the same melody line that opened it. Pretty solid way to throw it back for this Thursday post if you ask me.

Saturday: Darkest Hour - These Fevered Times

     More good news for metal fans with taste similar to mine (in addition to Dan rejoining Tesseract, of course) is the announcement of a release date for the latest from Darkest Hour.

     Based on all the promo stuff up on the band's Facebook page and the like, the record seems to be called Fuck Waiting Around to Die, and it's due out on the fifth of August, which really isn't that far away when you consider just how fast June has flown by. Based on the little teaser the band's posted, it sounds pretty much like you'd expect Darkest Hour to sound, but we'll all have to wait a bit longer to hear something more substantial.

     In the meantime let's celebrate the good news with a blast from the band's past. "These Fevered Times" is a relatively brief salvo of tasty metalcore and one of my favourite tracks from 2005's Undoing Ruin. It has all the Darkest Hour hallmarks -- good riffs, some shreddy leadwork, the trademarked DH drumbeat, acerbic John Henry vocals -- and it is, in this author's humble opinion, perfectly place on what is all around a classic album. Give it a spin.

Song of the Day: Devin Townsend - Grace

     There's absolutely no denying that Devin Townsend is stupidly talented. I've always been more of a fan of his production work than his personal musical output -- his production credits include Darkest Hour's Undoing Ruin and Deliver Us as well as Misery Signals' Of Malice and the Magnum Heart and Controller, just to name some of my faves -- but Devin can play a lick or two on the guitar too, and carry a decent tune, and keep a beat...

Song of the Day: Darkest Hour - With a Thousand Words to Say But One

     Today we've got a song from one of my favourite bands. I've been a big fan of Darkest Hour for years now, since 2003's Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation, but it was 2005's Undoing Ruin that really cemented Darkest Hour in the hearts and minds of metal fans, myself included. Just as Hidden Hands opens with an ass-kicking barn-burner ("The Sadist Nation"), Undoing Ruin likewise has a really great opening song, which you can use to open your day (OK, your mid-afternoon...).

     Your song today is "With a Thousand Words to Say But One" by Darkest Hour. And as a bonus, this album is so good that if you're fortunate enough to own a copy, I hereby implore you to simply put today's song on and then simply sit back and enjoy. Either way, if today's song doesn't get you going, you should perhaps watch out for rag-tag groups of survivors combing your area for supplies, because you may in fact be dead and just walking around with the rest of us.