DARKEST HOUR

Philip A. Wickstrand with:
Drummer Ryan Parrish
At Loveland
Portland, Oregon
July 21st, 2005

Washington DC’s melodic thrash stalwarts Darkest Hour’s newest album, “Undoing Ruin” (produced by Devin Townsend), debuted June 28th and sold over 8,000 copies in it’s first week of release. After touring endlessly with the likes of Atreyu, Six Feet Under, Lamb Of God, Phobia, Cattle Decapitation, Curl Up And Die and grabbing a slot on the Second Stage of last year’s Ozzfest, Darkest Hour are well seasoned road warriors who know how to work a crowd.
Phil: Your new album, "Undoing Ruin", came out a few weeks ago. If you want to pimp it like a twenty dollar hooker, now's your chance.
Ryan: Wow. (laughter) That good, huh? Or that bad? I guess it depends on how you look at it, really.
Phil: I've heard a lot of different things from a lot of different people.
Ryan: Well, I'm into it; I like what we did. It's a fun record. I'm excited.
Phil: Fun, but not evil?
Ryan: (laughter) It's still a little evil. I'd say there's some evil in there.
Phil: Okay, good, good. I noticed your label, Victory, called "Undoing Ruin" your third album. Any amused reaction to this little SNAFU?
Ryan: Actually, it's funny because it's not (our third album) and we all know it, but I guess our first record got lost in the midst of death… you know, kind of disappeared. But fuck it, we all know that we have four records.
Phil: Are you still selling "The Mark Of The Judas" at shows?
Ryan: Yes, we sure are.
Phil: This thing kind of reminded me when Victory put out that "New York Takeover" with Reach The Sky, All Out War and some other bands on it and they called Reach The Sky "Reach They Sky". Me and a friend showed that to their vocalist, Ian, and he just about had a fit.
Ryan: (laughing) That's funny.
Phil: So what was it like working with a mad genius like Devin Townsend on "Undoing Ruin"?
Ryan: He's amazing. He is a mad genius, he's remarkable, he's a great producer, a great guy, a good friend of the band. It's cool. He's really helped us out; it was awesome.
Phil: And he's totally not anything like he is on stage.
Ryan: Right. No, he's a really laid back dude.
Phil: I did an interview with him a couple years ago and he's one of the most laid back people I've ever met, which is saying something.
Ryan: That's how he is, man.
Phil: All right. Now, last Winter, you had a headlining tour with Cattle Decapitation and a few other bands. All those bands, with the notable exception of Darkest Hour played a Portland show. (yelling) I DEMAND AN ANSWER!
Ryan: (laughs) It's a long story and you don't want to hear about it.
Phil: Does it have anything to do with an obscene donkey show down in Tijuana?
Ryan: Yes. And a Shetland pony. Let's not go there.
Phil: All right then, enough said. (laughter) I can find the video in Europe, I take it?
Ryan: (laughing) I'm sure you can.
Phil: All right, now here's a question inspired by a bunch of idiots I used to work with who'd sit around and bitch about comic books all day.
Ryan: Okay!
Phil: Who would win in a fight - Darkest Hour or Batman?
Ryan: (laughs) I don't know, I've got a pretty good utility belt; I might have a chance, I think Darkest Hour might have a chance. 'Cause I mean, we all have our combined powers; Weenie (Kris Norris) could outdrink him, (laughter) I could smell him to death. There's a lot of factors here. (laughter) It'd be a close one; maybe we'd both die, maybe a tie, maybe we'd give up, shake hand and be friends. That's probably what would happen.
Phil: But if you do die, come back as zombies.
Ryan: Yeah, then we'll write another record.
Phil: Exactly. Okay, as a drummer, how long have you been beating off?
Ryan: Wow! (laughs) Since I knew how beating off started, since I realized what I could do.
Phil: About puberty, then?
Ryan: Yeah, I'd say like thirteen, fourteen. I mean it made sense at the time and I've been beating ever since.
Phil: Now, my notes say "insert obligatory Ozzfest question here", so therefore, tell me about your experience on Ozzfest.
Ryan: Um… we sat around a whole lot.
Phil: With those twenty minute sets, I'd imagine you wouldn't be playing very much.
Ryan: There was an air conditioned beer tent and a free Jager bus, so our time was pretty much spent being intoxicated and/or being asleep. (laughter) One of the two. Long days, lots of sitting around; it was cool.
Phil: Now I haven't seen the DVD yet because I've been broke as hell, but I hear there's a scene in it where you beat Bleeding Through at dodgeball. (laughter) Have they taken revenge on you during this tour yet?
Ryan: I think there was a kickball scene in there, but I think it was West Coast vs. East Coast, from what I can remember.
Phil: Okay, then I heard wrong.
Ryan: Yeah. I don't remember who won, if that helps you any.
Phil: I noticed it was very commendable of you guys on Ozzfest as you were one of the very few bands who weren't talking down to the audience saying "I want you to kill eachother you fucking pussies" and shit like that.
Ryan: Right, that's just not what we do. That's not how we roll. If anything, there was one time where John did ask everybody to look to the guy beside them and give 'em a hug. (laughter) That worked, kind of. Then there was one where John yelled "hey everybody, do us a favor and clean this place up on your way out, grab some trash, throw it away." (laughter) That was about as much as we talked to the crowd as far as that was concerned. Not too demanding on the crowd. We like circle pits and stuff, did ask for some circle pits, though. But no one wanted to kill anyone as far as I can remember.
Phil: You guys were one of the very few bands that realized that Middle School is over and name calling does not make people like you.
Ryan: (laughing) Yeah, plus if anyone wants to party to our music, I want them to want to party, not us telling them to party, them feeling obligated to party.
Phil: Now here's where I insert the question about the cash-cowing re-release of "Hidden Hands of the Sadist Nation".
Ryan: Well, Victory wanted us to have something new for Ozzfest, so they figured they'd re-release it with a little thirty minute DVD, so that we could have something fresh, which made sense at the time and I think it worked out. We definitely weren't doing it for the buck, we were doing it so we could have something fresh. I guess "Sadist Nation" had been out for over a year and a half by that time…
Phil: Uh… it had been out a little over a year at the time. I believe it came out on May 20th the year before if I remember correctly.
Ryan: Yeah, a year and a couple months. Just wanted something fresh to put on the table for people who had never heard Darkest Hour, maybe get a glimpse of what we do and how we are as people. That was the idea.
Phil: It was nice having footage of the old Meow Meow on there. It's like, "hey! I was at that show!"
Ryan: Yeah, exactly. There's some pretty cool shit on there. It was cool.
Phil: What are you anticipating for your upcoming Warped Tour dates?
Ryan: I don't know, we've never done a Warped Tour. Hopefully it won't be like Ozzfest. (laughs)
Phil: Longer sets; you get thirty whole minutes!
Ryan: Yeah, thirty minutes is already a plus. I think it will be good, I think it'll be fun and I think it'll be down to earth and we kinda want that.
Phil: It's more of a party environment.
Ryan: And I think that's what we want; that's how we are. Just nice, down to earth people and I hope we'll meet a lot more down to earth people.
Phil: I think you're actually the first actual metal band, that's not metalcore, to play Warped Tour.
Ryan: Yeah, I think Bleeding Through's doing some dates, too. But we're full-fledged metal, so it's a little bit different.
Phil: Yeah, they've still got that kind of core thing going on, but you can call them metal, you can call them metalcore; either way is accurate.
Ryan: Yeah, I agree.
Phil: On your tour with Atreyu and God Forbid a couple years back, I remember you playing the old Meow Meow, stripping naked, playing drums for a couple songs and diving off a stack of speakers.
Ryan: That's all hearsay, I don't know what you're talking about.
Phil: Why?
Ryan: (laughing) I don't know what you're talking about.
Phil: Please just tell me that you didn't have any fingers go in any, um, unwelcomed places.
Ryan: I don't remember that. No comment.
Phil: You're lucky then, because it's been burned indelibly into my mind. (laughter)
Ryan: No, that was a good time, I had a great time with that. But no, nothing came into my orifice, if that's what you mean.
Phil: Okay. Now I'm trying to remember if you were the guys that got a bunch of your shit jacked on that tour…
Ryan: We had all of our money stolen on that tour.
Phil: Did you ever get any of it back?
Ryan: We got a little bit of it back. We have twelve grand stolen and we maybe got a thousand bucks back.
Phil: Oh God!
Ryan: Yeah, we were broke mother fuckers. We had to come home a little early 'cause we were fucked. But everything happens for a reason, so fuck it.
Phil: Okay, I think that's all I've got.
Ryan: Okay, well, I appreciate the fuck out of the interview, man.