A bastard child born of the mid 90s punk/metal/hardcore movement, Washington, DC's Darkest Hour combine the passion, energy, and soul of punk/hardcore with the style, speed, vengeance and fury of melodic speed/thrash/death metal. They helped to define the entire New Wave of American Metal sound as one of the pioneers of modern metal/core. A sound that gave the metal and hardcore/punk world the revitalisation it surely needed. This style blended the raw, hardcore punk of the 80s, with the Scandinavian death metal of the 90s and forged a sound that would later become the template for modern metal. The 11-song album was part of a crowd funding campaign that the band launched earlier this year, with the ultimate tally netting the band well over 100% of the initial goal and allowing them to also create an album beyond their initial expectations. The band chose producer Kurt Ballou (High on Fire, Nails, Converge, Black Breath) for "his obvious genius" (as guitar player Mike Schleibaum said) and recorded the release at Ballou's Godcity Studio. Artist Shaun Beaudry was commissioned to create a custom painting, giving the album a unique visual identity.
