Darkest Hour - Brief Article

Thrasher Magazine, Feb, 2002 by Oakland L. Childers

In a perfect world, Darkest Hour would be kicking the ass of every other metal band out there, selling millions of records and living it up. Despite their DC hardcore upbringing, they are the essence of hard rock music. The band plays straight-up death metal, full of double bass drumming and crunching guitars, with a little street attitude thrown in for dessert.

But in blue jeans and t-shirts, Darkest Hour just doesn't look like a death-metal band, "We're a band where nobody has long hair, we don't wear corpse paint, and we don't fucking wear bullet belts. We don't sell our shirts for $25 a piece, and we don't play at huge arenas. We're just five dirty broke dudes, but we play death metal," says guitarist Mike Schleibaum. What really sets Darkest Hour apart is their punk work ethic and DIY attitude. Schleibaum says the punk mindset isn't widely accepted in the metal world, but it gets them out on the road. "The sad thing is that the way the metal genre is set up, metal bands don't tour like hardcore bands," says Schleibaum. "If you're a small metal band, you just play shows at home until someone decides that they want to put out your record. Then maybe you do a tour when you can go on a bus. The scene that we come from is a little different. There's no other way we could have done that band otherwise. It's either do this or sit at home and play shows at clubs that make you sell tickets." The band's latest release, So Secure on Victory, shows just how good crossing genres can be. Though borrowing from the death metal playbook, the record has a lot more to offer than speed and anger. The lyrics are intelligent and engaging, while the music has more melody than the typical metal record. Clearly, Darkest Hour is doing its own thing. But doing your own thing isn't always easy. In fact, it can be downright frustrating when people won't accept you just because you look a little different. "It's funny," says Schleibaum. "You go to the Milwaukee Metal Fest and there can be 50 bands, all sounding exactly alike, and no one calls them posers it they all look the same. If you come out and you try to play metal and you look a little different than everybody else--maybe you think differently, then automatically you're a poser. The metal genre doesn't seem to accept the punk attitude. It's one thing that won't cross over."