The Misanthrope

Darkest Hour are one of the few success stories from the mid-to-late '90s metalcore movement. Bands like Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall maintained a relatively premier status in the metal word, and Darkest Hour is among that batch. Most band start with pretty humble beginnings, and here, with the band's 1996 EP The Misanthrope, we have no exception. While Darkest Hour is best known for the thrashing blend of melodic death metal meets metalcore that carried them through the better part of the 2000's and beyond, their beginnings sound like a pretty typical metallic-tinged, dark hardcore band from the east coast in the '90s.

The Misanthrope takes a clear hardcore influence, with fistfuls of chunky, palm muted rhythms and occasional breakdowns, and merges it with a slight metallic sound, one that the band would later capitalize on. The resulting six track EP is not too far removed from what a lot of dark hardcore bands were doing around the time; Integrity, Fortydaysrain, Cold As Life, etc. It's basically chunky hardcore with metallic licks and a dark atmosphere. The only two current members of the band that participated on The Misanthrope, vocalist John Henry and guitarist Mike Schleibaum, show the blueprints for what Darkest Hour would turn into, but it's a pretty far cry from the rampant riffing of their later years.

As far as metallic hardcore goes, The Misanthrope is pretty dime-a-dozen. It's not overly memorable and there aren't many hooks or riffs that grab your attention. It basically served as an entry point for Henry and Schleibaum to get their foot in the door and to eventually release one of my favorite metalcore albums (their 2000 debut full length The Mark of the Judas). This is kind of a cool release, but it's more just to see how far Darkest Hour has come in twenty years.