By: Ben Fitts
Album Type: Full Length
Date
Released: 10/03/2017
Label: Southern Lord
“Godless Prophets
& the Migrant Flora” finds an exact middle ground between the elegant
melodicism of Darkest Hour’s earlier work and the feral muscle of their
previous album. The mixture is sure to please nearly all fans of the band, both
old and new. The result is twelve tracks
that simultaneously capture Darkest Hour at both their most tuneful and their
most assailing.
“Godless
Prophets & the Migrant Flora” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Knife in the Safe Room
2. This Is The Truth
3. Timeless Numbers
4. None Of This Is The Truth
5. The Flesh & the Flowers of Death
6. Those Who Survived
7. Another Headless Ruler of the Used
8. Widowed
9. Enter Oblivion
10. The Last of the Monuments
11. In The Name Of Us All
12. Beneath It Sleeps
2. This Is The Truth
3. Timeless Numbers
4. None Of This Is The Truth
5. The Flesh & the Flowers of Death
6. Those Who Survived
7. Another Headless Ruler of the Used
8. Widowed
9. Enter Oblivion
10. The Last of the Monuments
11. In The Name Of Us All
12. Beneath It Sleeps
The Review
Since
Darkest Hour strayed
from their melodeath roots in favor a more commercial metalcore sound on their
self-titled, eighth album in 2014, many new fans have flocked to the band’s
base. However, older fans of their melodic death metal sound have been
nervously twiddling their thumbs about what this would mean for the future of Darkest Hour’s
direction. That future arrives in the form of the Washington , D.C.
“Godless
Prophets & the Migrant Flora”
finds
an exact middle ground between the elegant melodicism of Darkest Hour’s earlier
work and the feral muscle of their previous album. The mixture is sure to
please nearly all fans of the band, both old and new. The vibrant, flowing
guitar leads definitive of the band’s classic material reintroduce themselves
on “Godless
Prophets & the Migrant Flora”, which may be partially due to the
return of former guitarist Kris Norris, who, while not a full member of the
band again, does perform additional guitar layering on the album. “Godless
Prophets & the Migrant Flora” also sees vocalist John Henry return
to a style more closely approximating his work on early Darkest Hour, albeit
a tad harsher and more martial.
These
elements of Darkest Hour’s past works float atop an
amalgam of their newer, metalcore influenced sound. The elements of classic
melodeath that the band always impeccably recreated are set to a backdrop of
vicious aggression that provide a new kind of edge to Darkest Hour that one
never noticed was missing before. This is perhaps best exemplified by the
album’s tenth and possible standout track, “The Last of the Monuments”, which
mixes nimble guitar work, infectious melodies and ferocious attitude. “Godless
Prophets & the Migrant Flora” truly finds the best of both worlds
that Darkest Hour has
ventured into, removes them with a scalpel, and then slaps them onto a new
musical canvas. The result is twelve tracks that simultaneously capture Darkest Hour at both
their most tuneful and their most assailing.
