Brand New LP out in March! One of our most favoritist bands! Ultra complex, and dizzingly complicated metal with lots of angular riffing and hooky little bits that definitely lift this stuff above standard grind / metalcore / whateveryoucallit. Last minute-ish show that will be totally crazy and awesome at The First Unitarian Church!

It seems to me like every hardcore kid in America must have gotten an In Flames songbook for Christmas, cause more and more US metalcore is sounding remarkably like Swedish melodic blackened, death metal. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. Now that In Flames have their eyes on the nu-metal prize and wear matching white denim outfits and prance around on MTV lip sync-ing to sing-along choruses and playing cookie cutter "MTV metal" someone had to step up to the plate. Darkest Hour are one of the few metalcore bands that are truly capable of writing actual songs and crafting honest to goodness hooks with super catchy melodies and totally original parts. They still destroy. Thick guitars and howled vocals. Super complex song structures and crazy drumming. It's all HEAVY AS FUCK! But amidst all the chaos and pummeling brutality are the kind of hooks that stick with you the way a pop song does. I find myself humming Darkest Hour riffs all the time lately and that's pretty strange. Although maybe it shouldn't be. One of our favorite new metalcore records, and it may just be catchy enough for you brave pop fans. But probably not. Victory Records

EveryBandNameMustHaveBeTaken

Animals as Leaders is a Washington, D.C. based instrumental progressive metal solo project by eight-string guitarist Tosin Abasi. Their self-titled debut album was released in April 2009 by Prosthetic Records.