Darkest Hour - Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora

Artist: Darkest Hour
Album: Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora
Year: 2017
Rating: 77/100

With nine albums under their belt and 22 years together as a unit, Darkest Hour have comfortably established themselves as one of the leading lights of modern American metal, along with such contemporaries as Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall and the Black Dahlia Murder. Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora is their ninth studio full-length, drawing on the customary blend of Scandinavian melodic death metal and aggressive old school hardcore, and is also their first release on Southern Lord.

Immediately as the album starts with the hard hitting "Knife in the Safe Room", we get the indication that Darkest Hour have safely returned to the sound that we expect from them; no frills, intelligent metal with coruscating riffs, John Henry's
screamed vocals and some seriously powerful drumming. Unlike its self-titled predecessor, Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora feels like an album Darkest Hour actually wanted to make; it comes as no surprise that the band had it crowdfunded and brought in Converge guitarist and producer extraordinaire Kurt Ballou to handle the reins. This as a result gives the album a feel of some of their previous works, not unlike the excellent Undoing Ruin or Deliver Us.

With Darkest Hour, you know what you're getting. Godless Prophets and the Migrant Flora is solid without being spectacular, but Kurt Ballou's production is crisp without being too polished or too muddy either way, and elevates the songs from above average to enjoyable. A good starting place if you're new to Darkest Hour's music.

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