Review Summary: Essentially a cross between the brutality of The Eternal Return and the more melodic side of Deliver Us, Darkest Hour's seventh lp, The Human Romance, is both nice to hear and a just a little bit stagnant.
As with any Darkest Hour record, there are things we dislike. Deliver Us had too much singing, The Eternal Return didn’t have enough, etc; however, with any of the past five DH records there is one constant keeping our attention: The Moment. The Moment is where, in any particular song, everything comes together. It could be the solo, the breakdown, the bridge--whatever the case may be, this moment is what makes the song worth our time. The title track to Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation is a perfect example. The song is long, brutal and breakneck, but then Thomas Lindberg comes in alongside John Henry with a back and Forth scream-a-long: “One nation under the gun, forward thinking is done, morbid traditions, archaic value systems…”, and you’re spellbound. The song suddenly has this immense power it at first didn’t. The solo on Sound the Surrender, the acoustic middle section of Tunguska, the chorus from Into the Grey--these are The Moments that we’ve come to expect from this band, and on that front, The Human Romance delivers the goods.
Man & Swine demonstrates this, as with after the solo, an ominous choir gives way to John screaming “It happens all the time” with a backdrop of cycling computer effects, creating a stunning atmosphere. Or the chorus of Wound, where the initially brutal beginning turns into a beautifully structured chorus, with melodic and harmonized guitars beneath Henry screaming, “When your way is the only way/ you can’t look at yourself and say ‘I was wrong’/ you’ve got the head of the king/ on the body of a pawn”. John Henry’s real talent, if not for screaming, is writing some truly great lyrics.
But beyond these Moments, The Human Romance has its weaknesses. For one, some of the tracks seem to carry a tired feel to it. The chorus to The World Engulfed in Flames has an uncomfortable time signature, and with no solo or memorable bridge, it lacks the energy that album openers like With a Thousand Words to Say and Doomsayer had. Sav
or the Kill doesn’t have the great lyrics we’ve come to expect from Henry, and probably the most disappointing thing about the record is the guitar work--while still being stellar in comparison to contemporary acts, it lacks the raw speed of Undoing Ruin, and the sheer technicality of Deliver Us. New found member Mike Carrigan is a great lead guitarist; on The Eternal Return he at least attempted to match his predecessor (the oft missed Kris Noriss). This time around, he’s content to write simple, yet nonetheless effective leads and solos, as opposed to something like, say, the solo in the The Tides. Not only this, but he straight up ripped Norris off with the lead riff to Your Everyday Disaster being lifted right out of This Will Outlive Us. Seriously, listen to the riff starting at 20 seconds in, and listen to the riff from Outlive Us starting at 1:12. Its literally the same thing.
Other band mates are all up to par, drummer Ryan Parrish being the guy that really shines here. On this albums immediate predecessor, Parrish went from being one of the best members in the band (especially back in the day of their first two releases) to being quite obnoxious. There were several songs (The Tides, No God, and Bitter to name just a few) where he wasn’t doing much but banging around, creating an overall uneasy pace against the greatly crafted guitar work. But never fear, our boy is back in top form here, laying out some excellent rhythms, notably in the chorus of Beyond the Life You Know, Purgatory and Love As a Weapon. All throughout the album he gallops away with driving forces for the rest of the guys to do their thing. His fills are great when they pop up, with some sweet blast beats and some double bass added in a few songs. Alongside Parrish is bassist Paul Burnette, who does a fine job. It has become a cliché of sorts (especially on this sight) to say “yeah it’s a metal record, there isn’t bass”, when all they’re really saying is they haven’t gotten good enough at listening to pull it out of the mix. Burnette is actually quite prominent--though sticking pretty close to rhythm guitarist Mike Shleibaum--he induces some really heavy head banging in songs like Violent By Nature. No, he doesn’t have any solos as he did back in the day of So Sedated, but overall he’s pretty well rounded.
The Human Romance has made some notable improvements. Possibly the most striking is how the band (John Henry in particular) are able to blend the melody and the brutality of their previous two releases so perfectly. Deliver Us, at least to me, marked the very real possibility that Darkest Hour would be heading down the well trodden road the likes of Killswitch Engage and All That Remains have already stumbled, with the heavy placement on clean singing and melodic passages. Take the intro to A Paradox With Flies for example. It sounded so pathetically similar to what I might hear on the alternative rock station on my Pandora app that I still cant take it seriously--or lead single Demons’ horrible lead riff (and chorus) that speaks a little bit too much about mainstream metalcore. In juxtaposition, The Human Romance’s only real “slow” song, Love as a Weapon (while boasting a questionable title) composes its melody far more gracefully. The opening riff is slow, mood setting, but not sickeningly sugary with the light computer melody lain behind it. Even the chorus, being half sung, is good in that Henrys voice has a sharp, screamed layer to most of the words, and rarely is it plain-sung. Thus is the case with most of the melody found on this record, like Savor the Kill and Beyond the Life You Know’s chorus, making it much more true to the genre and to their roots.
The Eternal Return was generally sighted as being a regression in their new found melody; it was uncomfortably heavy through the better part of it. This is debatable, as I found tons of catchy melodic tunes in there, but there’s no question as to the lack of acoustics and slower parts to bring the brutal breakdowns to a manageable level. On The Human Romance, the guys keep much of this aggression, with Your Everyday Disaster going all the way through to Severed Into Separates (four songs in a row) being one big heavy run, not slowing up until the chorus of Wound. However, melody is crafted into this heaviness, like the latter half of Violent By Nature, where Henry suddenly shifts to his raspy sing scream technique, giving much needed dynamic to the song. Or the clean guitars in the slowed down bridge in Purgatory--the solo in Severed Into Separates, all of these songs have a definitive moment of melody to counteract the heaviness. So in this sense, Darkest Hour successfully bring the melody of Deliver Us and the aggression of The Eternal Return to a fine point with their newest lp.
In addition to these improvements, we see a step forward here in that we have a fully realized
and complete album. The Eternal Return was great, but honestly, at thirty and a half minutes, it felt forced, lacking any narrative to keep it together. The Human Romance has the Terra Nocturnus and Terra Solaris suit, separated from start and finish, giving it a sense of coherency and finality. The album explores many different sounds, ranging from the minute long intro, to the mid-paced Wound and Love as a Weapon, to the breakneck Violent by Nature and Your Everyday Disaster, to an eight minute instrumental incorporating lovely piano and acoustic passages, as well as some truly killer solos, (being fairly reminiscent of Veritas, Aequitas). The album has an awesome production, being deliciously raspy while still quite clear, as opposed to the crisp and clean job on Deliver Us. And from start to finish, the record gives me a sense of being a part of something; its not just a collection of songs, or even a concept of them. Its simply an album designed to work as a unit, and that it does.
Amongst many things that could have been better, (like a new title and album art) we’re left with a great record. It may not be as groundbreaking as Undoing Ruin, as popular as Deliver Us or as fresh as either, but it has its own charms, its own Moments, and some really great qualities.
Best Songs: Man & Swine, Severed Into Separated, Wounds, Savor the Kill.
