Darkest Hour and Unearth Announce “Death to False Metalcore” Co-Headlining Tour of Europe with Malevolence, Misery Signals, and Left Behind
First, the facts, so as not to bury the lede:
Darkest Hour and Unearth have announced a co-headlining European tour, which will kick off in March of next year, with the two bands rotating the final slot on the bill each night. Support will come Malevolence, Misery Signals, and Left Behind. These bands fucking RIP live, and we strongly encourage you to attend if possible. Dates are as follows:
21.03.19 Germany Köln @ Essigfabrik
22.03.19 Belgium Brugge @ Het Entrepot
23.03.19 UK London @ ULU (w/o Malevolence)
24.03.19 Netherlands Utrecht @ Tivoli Pandora
25.03.19 Germany Wiesbaden @ Schlachthof
26.03.19 Germany Hamburg @ Markthalle
27.03.19 Germany Berlin @ SO36
28.03.19 Germany Munich @ Backstage
29.03.19 Germany Leipzig @ Conne Island
30.03.19 Czech Rep Prague @ Futurum
31.03.19 Hungary Budapest @ A38
01.04.19 Austria Vienna @ Arena
Now, the analysis:
I have no idea whether or not Darkest Hour and Unearth meant for the name of this trek to poke fun at the recent debacle involving Atreyu claiming to have invented metalcore — an assertion their peers don’t back up. Atreyu released their first EP, x, in 1998, and their first full-length, Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, in 2002; Unearth released their first EP, x, in 1999, and their debut full-length, The Stings of Conscience, in 2001. But Darkest Hour smoke ’em both: their first EP, x, came out in 1996, and by the end of 2000, they’d released another EP, a split, and their first LP, The Mark of Judas. “Metalcore” is an amorphous term that can be applied to a lot of different bands from the roughly the same era, but if we define it by its most popular usage, then Darkest Hour, inarguably, have a LEGITIMATE claim to having invented it. Certainly, their use of the Slaughter of the Soul-heavy European melodeath influence was ahead of its time.
But even if Unearth and Darkest Hour aren’t having a chuckle at Atreyu’s expense, the fact remains that we are currently seeing a trend of bands embracing the “metalcore” tag. That was unthinkable just a few years ago. This is a natural part of any subgenre’s lifecycle: it’s trendy and no one wants to admit they have anything to do with it, and then it goes away for awhile, and after some time passes, it comes back and suddenly people don’t really mind the association. The next step in the cycle, if you’re curious, is reunionmania, of which we’ve already seen just the briefest hint. But it’s a-comin’, I guarantee it. I give it another two years, three years, tops.
