Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour

Undoing Ruin

[5] Considering all of the hyperbolic marketing surrounding Darkest Hour’s third Victory full-length, (e.g., “heavier than Slayer,” “the best album since Slaughter Of The Soul”), most of us probably sort of wanted to hate Undoing Ruin. Well, good luck: Not only are these quotes true; they also don’t even begin to do the album justice. Tenfold better than 2003’s Hidden Hands Of A Sadist Nation, Undoing Ruin takes the band’s black-metal/hardcore hybrid to stratospheric levels, combining melodic guitar gallops, punishing double-bass and sweep-picked shredding (check out the end section of “Sound The Surrender”) in a way that isn’t only unbelievably heavy, it’s also unbelievably catchy. Oh, and regarding Devin Townsend’s production: Slaughter Of The Soul sampled Pantera’s bass drum-we’re betting bands are going to be sampling Undoing Ruin a few years down the road. Sometimes, we love being wrong. (VICTORY)-Jonah Bayer

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