Interview With Mike Schleibaum/guitarist


Well, when you go into the world of interviewing bands over the phone you're always bound to run into a few problems. The problem with this one being that the tape recorder decided not to pick up the conversation, but instead a massive amount of static. So instead of the in depth and quite awesome interview you have an article based on that in depth and quite awesome interview. Enjoy.

Darkest Hour are back, and armed with their best album so far. Hidden Hands of the Sadist Nation, who's name was insipired by the Michael Moore documentary Bolwing for Columbine, is the bands most extreme and abrasive album to date. The band wanted the album to be faster, and more melodic. They didn't hold anything back on this one, and it's quite apparent from the time you press play until the last dying note fades.

Mike says recording in Sweden was a bit weird at first. They were meeting tons of bands that they respect, and thinking what the fuck are we doing here? You could go to shows and the scene was small and felt more like a hardcore scene but all of the dudes are in huge metal bands. You can walk down the street on any given day and see the guys from In Flames walking down the road. Sounds like a good place to live to me!

I always thought the production on their last record, So Sedated, So Secure was a bit too laid back for the style the band plays. Mike said they tried to go for a more rock feel on So Sedated, and held back on the metal. They certainly didn't hold back on the metal on this new album!

Lyrically this album seems more political on the surface, but other albums had political songs about religion. Mike says they were just writing about what's going on around them.With September 11th and the farce that was the war on Iraq, it's not surprising that some of the songs tackled those subjects. He went on to say that they still have songs having nothing to do with politics. I made the point that it's tough to get into some metal lyrics. It's seems like they can't be personal. He agreed and went on to say that "Carcass', and Entombed's tongue in cheek, but serious lyrics were some of his favorite metal lyrics. A lot of metal heads don't pay attention to the lyrics in metal because they can't relate to them."

One of the things that surprised me most about the bands new album was the use of blast beats. Mike says that the band had them on an earlier 7" with a different drummer. But he specifically didn't want to use them for the bands first two albums. He went on to say that they fit in when the band was trying to make this new album heavier and faster.

It seems like the Swedish style is quite huge right now. You even hear it creeping into a lot of bands that you wouldn't necessarily expect it. For example, the newest Lamb of God record has a lot of melodic Swedish style riffs. Mike says he doesn't mind the explosion of Swedish sounding bands It's cool because it's a style he likes, and I definitely agree with his next point, he'd rather see this then more shitty rap metal bands.

I was curious to find out if the bands name came from the Megadeth song, but Mike says he wishes it had. The truth is that they needed a name for a show, and darkest hour was the best one that they could think of. He did assure me that he definitely was a fan of old Megadeth though.

Darkest Hour are a band that seems to be on the road constantly and they wouldn't have it any other way. It doesn't matter if they are playing to 15 kids as long as there is a circle pit going on. Mike says it's easier to book hardcore tours then metal tours. You can just play in basements if you can't find another show. He went on to say, it's hard for smaller metal bands to get known because the bigger bands get a bigger push. There's no room for the smaller bands to get bigger.