Darkest Hour

Washington, D.C. quintet Darkest Hour — Mike Schleibaum [guitar], John Henry [vocals], Aaron Deal [bass], Travis Orbin [drums], and Nico Santora [guitar] — have announced their tenth album, Perpetual | Terminal, out February 23, 2024.

"This is a whole Darkest Hour album in one song," the band says. "It felt like the perfect album opener, eventually became the title track, and therefore is the perfect place to start as we present this new album to the world. Lyrically, it touches on all of the themes of the record — an album centered around the duality of survival and rebirth. Or, you could just say, some new music from old friends who just won't ever give up."

Darkest Hour, as a whole, have weathered time, trends, and tides of change and stands stronger nearly three decades since their formation. Their unique sonic style incorporates death metal exorcisms, thrash recklessness, hardcore punk attitude, and melodic catharsis at the speed of a circle pit.

"The record's theme centers around the duality of survival while embracing rebirth,'" says Schleibaum. "We keep killing parts of ourselves to make new parts and survive. The story of the record is the story of the band. We're still here, and we're giving the world a body of work that's representative of our music today. We've realized relationships, tours, good times, everything that seems to give life meaning, is terminal — and will inevitably end. Nevertheless, we're 46-year-old dudes who love this music enough to put up with the trials and tribulations of being artists in a touring band."

Darkest Hour clawed their way out of the DMV area in 1995. Throughout the ensuing years, they tallied tens of millions of streams and quietly built a diehard fan base. Canvasing the globe, they packed thousands of shows and touched down on every continent, save Antarctica. Along the way, they notably notched five Top 3 debuts on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart. 2017's Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora marked the group's third #1 bow on the latter in addition to crashing the Top 10 of the Top Vinyl Albums Chart. It also represented a creative and critical high watermark. Beyond praise from Revolver, EXCLAIM!, and more, MetalSucks rated it a rare perfect score of "5-out-of-5" and hailed it as "the best album Darkest Hour have ever made." New Noise cited it as "one of the best of 2017, and Metal Hammer dubbed it "a monumental return." PopMatters crowned it, "a masterclass in following your beliefs no matter where they might take you."