Hailing from the muddy fields and pig sheds of Northamptonshire, The Darkhorse are a 4 piece metal band with the heart of doom and sludge but with the lungs of a hardcore band, drawing their influences from the likes of Sabbath, Superjoint Ritual, The Chariot and Crowbar. We get a few words from the band on their debut album The Carcass of The Sun Will Sleep and a little history of the band.
The Rockpit: I love the debut album “The Carcass of The Sun Will Sleep”, it’s got everything that a good, solid metal record should have. How much time did you spend writing and recording these songs?
The Darkhorse: The songs were written over the course of a year, we didn’t want to rush them. Barry would come to table with a riff and then we would build on it. Each of us would help arrange the track and have an input on how we felt the track sound.
The Rockpit: I hear a lot of references to bands like Superjoint Ritual, Crowbar and Black Sabbath. Are you aware of those kinds of musical connections in your music?
The Darkhorse: We have heard of these references and its quite an honour as they are all amazing bands
The Rockpit: Who are some of your biggest influences?
The Darkhorse: There are many bands that influence us but the ones that are up they’re at the top are The Chariot / Superjoint / Will Haven / Deftones / Leviathan. we appreciate these are a varied eclectic mix of styles but we feel that if you are mixed together in a blender you’d pour out a beautiful glass of Darkhorse
The Rockpit: I find a lot of great bands in similar vein to your music coming out of the UK at the moment. What is the metal scene there like right now?
The Darkhorse: It varies from city to city, some places you’ll find more coffee shops than music scene but others you the scene is full and beautiful. Leicester seems to have an amazing scene right now along with Sheffield / Manchester / Bristol / Leeds. Most of these are university cities which could have a massive impact on the scene
The Rockpit: How did The Darkhorse come together as a band and where does the name come from?
The Darkhorse: The name came from an old band bassist Dan and Guitarist Barry was in called Absolute Darkhorse, this intern was a lyric from a Superjoint Ritual song, but after a few member changes and a few people just generally reffered to as The Darkhorse it just made sense to drop the Absolute.
The Rockpit: When you wrote these new songs, what initially were you trying to achieve?
The Darkhorse: As previously stated Barry comes to the table with the Riff and our intention is mainly to write a song that we would love to play live, something with some balls and a tasty riff that you can head bang / lose your mind to. If others enjoy it too that’s a massive bonus, even if they don’t go nuts and just stand at the band and nod along we’d be honoured
The Rockpit: What are the main inspirations both lyrically and musically for the band to come up with ideas for songs?
The Darkhorse: Lyrically we are horror fans so we like to get some references to some of our favourite films in for example 741 refers to the film “As above so below”, also some subtle religion references in their too.
The Rockpit: Ultimately what do you hope to achieve with The Darkhorse?
The Darkhorse: Most bands would love to be successful but to be honest for us we’d just love to play some amazing shows / festivals with some amazing bands. Also, do some bitchin tours with bands we adore and love
The Rockpit: What has been the highlight of the band’s career so far?
The Darkhorse: We’ve had many highlights, don’t think we can name just one. It would have to be a concoction of supporting Raging Speedhorn in their hometown reunion show, being picked to play Bloodstock festival after being spotted in the Metal 2 The Masses final and finally being asked personally by the owner of Mammothfest after seeing us live, to play mammoth even extending the stage times to accumulate us.
The Rockpit: If you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any classic album in history, what would it be?
The Darkhorse: Probably black Sabbath’s master of reality not only is it an iconic album but to see how messed they were on drugs whilst recording it and how they could do it haahaa
The Rockpit: What is the meaning of life?
The Darkhorse: To enjoy yourself, keep happy and make sure all those around you are having fun. Look after you family epically your kids as they will be looking after you when your old.
