I’m a big fan of John Henry, the vocalist for Darkest Hour, and all that he adds to that band’s music. (I like screaming. What can I say?) That being said, I’m also a huge fan of the other four dudes in the band, and will pretty much never complain about a chance to listen to the awesome dual shred brought by The Two Mikes (that would be Schleibaum and Carrigan).

And so I embrace the newly-released instrumental version of DH’s latest offering, The Human Romance. In a statement announcing this version of the album’s (very sudden) unveiling, Mr. Schleibaum proclaims it to be for “geeks, shredders, stem junkies and Karaoke fanatics;” I guess I fall into at least one, and possibly two, of those categories.

ANYWAY, you can buy the instrumental edition of the album on iTunes for just eight bucks, so get on that shit. And don’t forget that Darkest Hour are part of the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, which starts TOMORROW, and also features The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Dying Fetus, Six Feet Under, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Oceano, As Blood Runs Black, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins. Get dates here.

-AR

No disrespect to our pal Anso DF — I mean the guy’s a ridiculously studly writer and has darn near impeccable music taste, amirite? — but a new Van Halen album is hardly worth getting excited about. I mean, ok, maybe I’ll pop a little semi-stiffy, but if the facts that Fatty Ding Dongs Van Halen is friends with a member of Creed and David Lee Roth hasn’t even stepped foot in the studio doesn’t have “trouble” written all over it, then EVH also isn’t completely delusional and oh yeah, that tongue cancer was definitely caused by that metal guitar pick you use and had nothing whatsoever to do with smoking more cigarettes in an hour than a casino full of raggedy old ladies at slot machines smokes in a day. Still, ya know, I’m curiously optimistic; maybe there’ll be some sick solos.

Even if Van Halen’s 2k11 record does blow donkey balls, thankfully we’ve got Dann Halen to rock us into 2k12. The Texas-based VH cover band features Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan (Darkest Hour) on guitar, James Love (ex-Dillinger Escape Plan) on drums, Dann Miller (The Jonbenet) on screeches and leg kids, “and a couple other buddies doin it hard,” according to Sir Lonestar himself, who sent us the above video. What I love about this video — aside from the EVH-model guitar, Jack Daniels bass and HOLY SHIT NICE STARS AND STRIPES LEOTARD, DUDE! — is that Lonestar clearly did not have to learn much, if any of the guitar parts specifically for this gig; it’s clear he grew up on the stuff and knows it front to back. Because fuckin’ EDDIE VAN HALEN, mannnnnn! He’s the best metal guitar player of all time that no one ever talks about anymore.

-VN

Holy crap, there’s a lot of new music coming out today. It’s like everyone knew that all the lonely metal heads would home alone jerking off, so they all released new songs at once. It’s hard to even keep up with it all!

One that’s worth keeping up with, though, is Darkest Hour’s “Love is a Weapon.” It’s another new song from their forthcoming offering, The Human Romance, and I think it’s my favorite yet.

Why? Well, for one thing, it amalgamates my two favorite emotions: rage and melancholy. But, perhaps more importantly, it just hits all my g-spots: it’s well-written, it’s well-played, and it’s well-produced, by some dude named Peter Wichers. I ain’t never heard of him before, but I think he could have a bright future ahead of him if he continues to do work as good as this.

To listen, go to the band’s Facebook page and tell the world that you want Darkest Hour to be your valentine. Let’s be real here, Mike Carrigan is prettier than your real valentine anyway.

The Human Romance comes out next Tuesday, February 22, on eOne. It is the perfect music to make love to.

-AR

So last night’s question was tricky — so tricky, in fact, that only one person got it right! Necro’s real name is Ron Braunstein, and, yep, he’s Jewish. And despite his name, Darkest Hour’s Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan is, indeed, half-Jewish. I was caught off-guard when I saw Igor Cavalera included in this article at The Gauntlet (where a picture of From Exile’s Eric Guenther, who is not Jewish, is used for the entry on Daath’s Eyal Levi, who is… but I digress), but some research unearthed that fact that the former Sepultura drummer apparently converted when he got married. His brother Max also married a Jew, although I don’t think he converted. In any case, that just leaves Poison’s C.C. DeVille.

I understand why people would think that C.C. DeVille (né Bruce Johannesson) is Jewish, given that he’s loud, from Brooklyn, and has a big schnozz — hell, I used to assume that he was Jewish — but, alas, he’s not. So mazel tov to reader Joe Caperon, the only entrant who correctly answered the question. Joe wins a mystery prize courtesy of Century Media, and a dreidel, courtesy of us. Go Joe!

Here’s the question for night three:

• What is the name of infamous metal-themed music retailer in Tel Aviv?

E-mail your answer to axl [at] metalsucks.net with the phrase “HEAVY METAL HANNUKKAH – NIGHT 2″ in the subject line. All entries should include your name and mailing address in addition to your answer, and are due by 5 pm tomorrow (Saturday, December 4) evening. Shortly thereafter we’ll announce the winner and post night 4’s trivia question. And while you don’t have to be Jewish to enter the contest, you do have to live in the U.S. We need to conserve moolah to get all the MetalSucks Mansion Monkeys their Hanukkah gifts!!!

-AR

Mazel tov to reader Noah Mezsick, who correctly identified the first night of Hanukkah’s trivia question — yes, Orphaned Land’s Kobi Farhi is the poor musician that I accidentally introduced to frum porn earlier this year. I hear he’s had nightmares ever since. I apologize, Kobi! In any case, Noah wins a mystery prize courtesy of Century Media, and a dreidel, courtesy of us. L’chaim!

Now… ONTO NIGHT SHTAYIM!  (I think that’s Hebrew for “two.” If I fucked up, well, oops.) Here’s the trivia question:

• Which of the following metal-affiliated musicians is NOT Jewish: C.C. DeVille, Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan, Igor Cavalera, Necro

E-mail your answer to axl [at] metalsucks.net with the phrase “HEAVY METAL HANNUKKAH – NIGHT 2″ in the subject line. All entries should include your name and mailing address in addition to your answer, and are due by 5 pm tomorrow (Friday, December 3) evening. Shortly thereafter we’ll announce the winner and post night 3’s trivia question. And while you don’t have to be Jewish to enter the contest, you do have to live in the U.S. What, you want we should go broke on shipping charges?

-AR

My little date book (yeah, I still keep a hand-written calendar!) tells me it’s almost November, which means the MetalSucks sponsored Legacy Tour — featuring Darkest Hour playing a “best of” set from their 15 year career, along with Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation — is right around the corner. The tour kicks off November 12th in the Northeast and runs counter-clockwise around the U.S. and Canada, ending exactly 1 month later back east, meaning most of you should be able to attend what will surely be a fun night of metal. Even those of you in Florida!

To give you all fans a little something extra, Darkest Hour are teaming up with Guitar Hero to offer one really adept plastic-button-pusher the chance to show their mad GH skillz in a battle royale against DH real-deal-shredders Mike Schleibaum and/or Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan. Alls ya gotta do to enter is submit a video or screen cap of your “Difficult”-level high score on certain GH games. In addition to the meet-and-shred, the winner will also receive a whole buncha other cool shit. Details for the contest are here.

As for those tour dates, jump on past the “read more” to have a gander.

Click to read more…

The next Darkest Hour album is gonna be something of a turning point for the band, regardless of how it’s ultimately received — it’s their first away from Victory Records since 2000′s The Mark of the Judas, and guitarist/all-around awesome d00d Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan is no longer “the new guy,” so I suspect that his shredtastic powers will be even further exploited than they were on The Eternal Return (and to the band’s credit, my understanding is that they welcomed Carrigan as a songwriter from the get-go, and never really treated him like “the new guy”). Also, it’s a new Darkest Hour album. That’s just reason to be happy right there.

And now there’s reason to be even happier: the band has announced that Soilwork’s Peter Wichers will produce the still-to-be-titled effort. Of course, Swedish melodic death metal has been a HUGE influence on Darkest Hour’s sound; it’s hard to think of anyone better suited to said sound than Wichers, who is Swedish melodeath royalty.

This album was always gonna be one of my most-anticipated of 2011, but now my desire to hear it has grown exponentially. Obviously, there’s no word on a release date from E1 yet, but we’ll keep you up to speed…

-AR

Six albums and ten years after signing with Victory Records, Darkest Hour found themselves free agents after their most recent release, 2009′s The Eternal Return. Last month’s announcement that Darkest Hour had signed with E1 (formerly Koch) came as a surprise to many who thought they’d end up on a more established metal label but makes perfect sense given E1′s recent track record of signing already established metal acts.

Shortly after the band announced their new label, I caught up with Darkest Hour guitarist, occasional MS columnist, fellow member of The Tribe and MS interview alum Mike Schleibaum to chat about the band’s career, their recent label move, and what to expect on the next record (it’s already being written). Darkest Hour were doing a short string of headline dates on their way back from their U.S. tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, Animals as Leaders and Iwrestledabearonce, and though a slight snafu prevented us from talking the day we’d originally planned on, we hooked up the next afternoon. Our chat after the cut.

Click to read more…

Darkest Hour are currently out on the road doing the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, and they’re doing a video tour diary for our gay lovers at Metal Injection. Check it out below.

It’s good to see that Lonestar is growing his mega-beard back. It’s also good to see his package.

ANYWAY, I’ve seen enough of the touring lifestyle to know that I don’t ever want to go on tour. But then again, it looks like these dudes are having so much fun…

Look for more Darkest Hour tour diaries at Metal Injection throughout the rest of the summer. And you can Summer Slaughter tour dates here. In addition to Darkest Hour you get Suffocation, Necrophagist, Ensiferum, Dying Fetus, Origin, Born of Osiris, Winds of Plague, and a bunch of other cool bands, so definitely check it out!!!

-AR

So, we’ve heard the new Darkest Hour album, The Eternal Return, and while I’ll leave a full review to someone else, I can tell you that the album shreds. With all due respect to Kris Norris, his departure from the band had no discernible effect on the quality of their music, and ex-At All Cost axe master Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan is a more than able replacement. Plus, saying his name makes me think of Spaceballs. Good times.

You won’t get to hear The Eternal Return in its entirety until Victory releases it on June 23, but in the mean time, the band has posted another new song, “Devolution of the Flesh,” on their MySpace page. Check it out; you’ll only hate it if you don’t like to rock.

-AR

Blabbermouth tells me that the below video of Darkest Hour preparing for their recent Washington, D.C. homecoming gig was created by a blog called DCist. But to be completely honest, my interest lies in seeing former At All Cost guitarist/new edition to Darkest Hour, Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan, become integrated into the band. Mike is a) one of the nicest dudes on the face of the planet, b) an awesome guitar player, and c) half-Jewish, so it’s basically awesome to see him rocking out with founding member/MetalSucks guest blogger Mike Schleibaum – I mean, look at Carrigan shred! Ridiculous.

Also ridiculous: what happens to Mike at the 1:06 mark.

Yuk-yuk.

-AR