n any and all music, good songwriting is key. I don’t care how heavy your band is or how many thousand influences you incorporate into your sound – if you can’t write a catchy or memorable tune, you suck. End of story. No questions asked. In a genre such as heavy metal, where damn near every band is loud and aggressive as hell, good songwriting becomes even more critical to being a good band. There is a reason why a band like Iron Maiden is held with higher regard than say, Nuclear Assault, and it has nothing to do with speed or heaviness. Maiden wrote better songs – that’s why they’re the better band. Nowadays, you can’t stand out by simply detuning your guitars to E or soloing faster than anyone else. You have to detune to E, solo the fastest, and write the best songs. The songwriting must be there and it must be good.


More than any other modern metal scene, that of Sweden displays a mastery of the songwriting craft. Few bands can compete with In Flames’ catchiness – once their songs get into your head, they’re not coming out. Soilwork approaches so-called melodic death metal from a more brutal but no less effective angle, repeatedly crushing the ears under lightning fast chords and then picking their way through more melodic passages, just barely giving the listener enough time to recover. It goes without mention that At The Gates and sister band The Haunted are making waves in modern metal, and for good reason. Both bands have a level of technical skill, songwriting skill, and intensity that would make most bands, metal or not, consider going back to those day jobs for good.


Washington, D.C.’s Darkest Hour seems to well aware of the Swedish touch. Whereas most American metalcore bands are content with their cookie-monster vocals, their chugga-chugga chords, their overdone double-bass, and their “fuckin’ brutal breakdowns”, Darkest Hour takes a more intelligent, songwriting-oriented approach to the metal. With So Sedated, So Secure, the band plays more streamlined but no less aggressive than they have on earlier efforts. Sure, there’s tons of Swede worship going on in this record, but it’s a hell of a lot better than the tons of Hatebreed worship that many other American metal bands shit out onto record. The songs of So Sedated, So Secure are hit-and-miss (more the former than the latter), but at least they are present. By default, Darkest Hour has won half of the game.


So Sedated, So Secure begins with the one-two punch of “An Epitaph” and the title track. The former rocks out in the confident, mid-paced fashion, unexpectedly throwing the listener into one of the most memorable metal choruses written in a long time. If you’re in a metal band, take note – this is how good metal done. All that can be said about the title track is that it’s the perfect fusion of At The Gates and In Flames with that classic Darkest Hour-style core thrown in. Yes, it’s that good. Few other moments of this album or any other modern metal album match the combined strength of the two opening tracks. “No Closer Than A Stranger” comes close, combining riffs straight out of the Soilwork book with one of those good ol’ insane breakdowns that Darkest Hour is known for.


Other tracks, such as “The Hollow” and “A Cold Kiss” show a more restrained Darkest Hour, emphasizing melodies over all-out brutality. These two tracks, although not as strong as their more aggressive counterparts, do succeed in providing a much needed break from the almost overbearing intensity of the albums’ other tracks. If these tracks had focused even more on the melodic side of things, they would have provided a larger contrast and made the whole album stronger because of it. “Treason In Trust” returns to In Flames-influenced metalcore in which the vocals are more emphatic that in any other song. The actual vocals fit the music perfectly. John Henry’s shouts are vicious without being comical and powerful without being overbearing – not an easy feat.


The album closer, “The Last Dance Massacre”, closes off the album on a mellower note, starting off with heavy grooves (in the good sense, not the god-awful nu-metal sense) before trailing off into extended feedback. It’s a fitting ending for an album that proves that metal doesn’t have to be over the top to be good but instead has to have good songwriting to be good. The Swedes are definitely on to something, and Darkest Hour isn’t far behind.