Darkest Hour – Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation (Victory Records)
This week is shaping up really well. More American thrash-/death-core, and I don’t complain. This stuff is great! Brutal, vicious, blistering, pounding, just damn excellent stuff from these Americans who decided to record this album in Sweden, at the world-famous Studio Fredman, with legendary producer Fredrik Nordström. As a result, the Euro-thrash and NWOSDM influence is far more accentuated than before, especially with all the guest musicians who contribute to this. Let’s see, we’ve got Tomas Lindberg (At the Gates), Peter Wichers (Soilwork), Anders Bjorler (The Haunted), and Marcus Sunesson (The Crown). That list alone basically reads like a “Who’s Who” of Swedish melodic death metal. So yeah, imagine Maiden gallops, ATG riffing, Haunted vocals, Soilwork melodies, and some standard HC breakdowns, and this is what you get. Which is fuckin’ great. This whole scene is just bustling with energy and so much creativity, we all should keep an eye on it.

Tracks:
1) Opener pretty much tries to open up a nice little hole in your head by taking a rather sharp object and hitting you with it, over and over and over again. Which is rather pleasant, if you ask me.
2) Starts out with cool guitar FX and develops into the standard metal thrashing we all love and fear so much. A breakdown with some great riffs does it for me. Becomes midtempo for the last two minutes.
3) Starts out with some death/black spews of lung. Continues into a drum-driven thrashcore moment of nirvana that fades out into a feeback loop and then back in for some more ass-kicking.
4) Man, what riffs to start off! And what riffs to continue. Just... epic!
5) More great guitars with some very cool and musical interludes. I like this song a lot, actually, but I couldn’t tell you why. Maybe it’s the always-on double bass.
6) Slower intro, and the whole song is kinda mid-paced, but not lighter. Emo-ish lyrics, but sung unlike any emo band would dare.
7) Wow, 8 minute epic, but FCCs so, you know, listen to it on your own damn spare time if you want the best song here.
8) Politically charged, and that’s fine by me. Also, great riffs, great drums, great vox, great. Just great.
9) 13 minute instrumental closes off the record, and it’s the perfect fucking song. A little bit of everything, all of it fucking excellent. Melodic, with lots of guitar harmonies, lots of cymbals, lots of double bass, lots of great riffs, this even sounds doomy at times. It’s an awesome track. Hey, it even becomes acoustic about 4 minutes into it, and a piano joins in at about the 7-minute mark, with a cello.