Darkest Hour Collaborating with Ex-Guitarist Kris Norris on New Album
After releasing eight albums on three different labels over their twenty year career, Darkest Hour took a different approach this time around by going the crowd-funding route, raising over $67k for their next effort. They’re currently recording with Kurt Ballou at Godcity Studios, which further solidifies the “very different this time” theme: 2014’s self-titled album, released on Sumerian Records, was their most commercial record to date and Ballou is anything but.
We anxiously await the results of the Darkest Hour + Kurt Ballou combo. But in the meantime we’ve got some fun news: ex-guitarist Kris Norris — who played on Undoing Ruin, Deliver Us and Sadist Nation (which many DH fans consider to be some of the band’s best work) — has been working with the band on some of the new material. It doesn’t seem as if he’ll be returning to the band full-time — Michael “Lonestar” Carrigan is most certainly still in the fold — but any kind of collaboration with Norris is very exciting… dude is hella talented.
Says the band via press release:
We are recording with guitar/producer jedi Kurt Ballou at his very own God City studio in Salem, Mass. We’ll be there for the next month and it’s going to rule. The studio is amazing, Salem is beautiful this time of year, and it seems like a perfect environment to make some blistering metal.
We have tried our best to make this project special for not only fans but ourselves. Enlisting Kurt’s help is only one step in the process. It’s with this in mind that we would like to let you in on another little secret — we’ve brought back our very own guitarist Kris Norris (of Undoing Ruin, Deliver Us, Sadist Nation fame) to collaborate with us on a few tracks and possibly a guest solo or two.
We have been documenting the writing and recording process as we go so look for some web vidoes, live Facebook-ing, and whole lot more as we continue the journey that is making this record.
Once again, thanks to everyone who has pre-ordered or contributed to our Indiegogo campaign. This album will NOT disappoint. We can’t wait to assault you ears with these jams.
Norris himself offered some words as well:
When the guys contacted me about the idea of a collaboration, I was excited because it has been a really long time since I’ve worked with them all. I’ve stayed in touch with them over the past years and it’s really awesome to see that they keep trying new things on every album and growing musically. I’ve always felt there was a really good writing chemistry and it’s awesome to see that it’s still there.
More as we get it! Very excited to hear these DH + Ballou + Norris brainchildren. Meanwhile, here’s some silly metal covers of One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” and the Ghostbuster theme song that Norris released recently.
