“Extreme is 13 bands in one small-assed club,” exclaims Michael Schleibaum of the Washington D.C. quintet Darkest Hour.

“All smelly, been driving to each show and just metal as hell,” the guitarist continues. “Honestly, this is the biggest collection of dirty, crazy dudes that you could get.”

He’s referring to this year’s Summer Slaughter tour, a musical blitz sponsored by Fangoria and Decibel magazines that’s got 13 bands playing 40 gigs in less than two months, and that’s not including the special guest bands slated for occasional shows throughout the North American invasion.

“There are so many people and so many pieces of gear, it’s really an art to get a show like this to happen on time; but everybody’s done really good so far,” Schleibaum nods, citing Suffocation and Necrophagist as the tour’s official headliners.

“Everybody showed up and the shows are running on time. I don’t know how you get a bunch of rejects like this to all do that, but somebody’s doing something right,” he laughs.

Darkest Hour have been tearing up the continental highways with their brand of death-fueled melodic metal since the band’s inception in 1995, with Schleibaum and vocalist John Henry at the core of the group for the entire 14 years and six studio albums.

“We recently got one new member, [guitarist Mike Carrigan] but he’s cool, because he adds a little fresh blood to the whole thing.”

Their latest offering, “The Eternal Return” [Victory, 2009], is faster, heavier and more melodic then their last, and Schleibaum confirms they’ll be performing a couple tunes off the album during their 45-minute Summer Slaughter set.

“And let me tell you, that’s about all we need to get up there and do our thing because it’s fast and it’s death metal.”

Schleibaum doesn’t hesitate to compare the band’s sound to a hummingbird amplified over top of a jackhammer.

What?

“Maybe that’s cryptic,” he laughs. “It’s like a little faster and a little heavier than Slayer with a little bit of Metallica thrown in there, but it’s all just a little more aggressive and turned up because it’s amplified by a punk rock microscope.”

But as a whole, the band is simply big on the party vibe, so they want to make sure they include as much of their earlier material as possible so fans can mosh and roll along as much as possible, which makes coming up with a set list a bit of a challenge, at least for the first few shows.

“We don’t like to shove new material people might not know right away down their throats, but we also like to sprinkle in new stuff, because its often so much more fun to play the newer music. We always hone a set list the first couple days on the tour, change some things around, and by about the first week into it, we’ve got a good feel about what people want to hear and what people are stoked on.”

Each show is a long day and I can’t imagine you guys watching every band in the line-up every single day for the next two months – how do you think you’ll keep yourselves entertained?

We’ve got games, we’ve got a barbecue, we got a tent, we’ve got all sorts of fun stuff. We’re pretty good at finding a way to spend all day just messing around, so being on a tour like this is nothing different than normal. Trust me, the five of us could make fun happen in an empty airplane hangar with nobody there and no instruments.

I hear you plan on doing a bit of barbecuing on this tour. Plan on trying some famous Alberta beef?

I think I might have had Alberta beef before one other time, but this time we’ll make sure to go do it right. We need to make sure we’re getting the certified stuff because I’m sure if we did, believe me, if we did it was not at the most expensive restaurant in town.

You don’t need to spend lots, I’ll take you to the grocery store myself if I have to.

Dude, sold. We’ll have to barbecue. Hopefully it’ll be nice weather and that sounds like a good time to try out the barbecue for sure. And our favourite thing is – it’s a little sad – but it’s the fruit explosion muffin at Tim Horton’s warmed up in the microwave. It’s the shit. And I’m going to get that and a double double as soon as I get across the border. I want two shots of cream and two shots of sugar in my Tim Horton’s coffee.

One thing I find interesting is there’s only one Canadian stop between now and mid-July, which is awesome, because it’s here in Calgary.

It’s kind of far to drive up to where Calgary is, so I think when bands do it – especially 13 bands do – it makes it a really special event, especially for people who don’t usually get something like that. It’s a great city and we did a bunch of cross-country tours where we didn’t go to Calgary and then, when we started going there, we were like, “Why had we never come here before?”

Our mosh pits are crazy.

Oh yeah, Canadians know metal.

You recorded a couple of albums with resident Canadian metalhead Devin Townsend, but this lates disc, “The Eternal Return,” was produced by Brian McTernan. What inspired this switch back to Brian?

He had produced the first two, and we had left him for that bad-assed Canadian Devin Townsend [of Strapping Young Lad] and Devin did an amazing job. He’s the man; he’s a genius. But we really just wanted to go back to the original essence of the band. We wanted a kind of totally different take, because we wanted something fresh. It wasn’t Devin’s fault by any means, it was more just like we needed to change something up. We learned and grew so much working with Devin, that taking it back to Brian after he honed his skills was really fun, because all of a sudden you’re learning a whole new other set of things from somebody who sees music in a totally different way.

How much did the sound change since the first time you worked with Brian?

Well, it definitely changed overall. He did a lot to help – Brian’s really good at figuring out what doesn’t feel right. He doesn’t just walk into a room and say, “Hey, you guys need to change this and do this and do that.” He says, “Hey, I think everything feels good, but what do you guys feel about this?” And it’s like looking at a mirror. We were really able to hone the project into something we really wanted, and I think that was his ultimate gift to the project, just giving us the ability to make the record we wanted to but couldn’t necessarily without being pushed a little bit.

How do the styles of the two producers differ?

They’re different, but there are a lot of similarities between great men. Both Devin and Brian have a great working work ethic. Brian owns his own studio and comes from a little more of a punk rock background, but he’s not necessarily as in tune with the new computer gadgets. Devin’s in love with all things musical, so he’s probably in his basement right now playing with an advanced version of ProTools. So, they have different takes, but they’re really similar when it comes down to it. One of them might be the lead singer of a heavy metal band and the other one might be a producer you may not have ever seen, but they’re both equally eccentric.

What kind of tour plans are in the works for after Summer Slaughter to promote “The Eternal Return?”

We’re going to be going on tour with Trivium and Suicide Silence in the fall. That’s going to be really fun. And then we’re doing a European tour with our friends Kataklysm next year, and there might be some headlining dates which – hey, may even take us back to Alberta. That might happen in November.

Is there anything else we need to know about the new album or your upcoming shows?

The last thing you need to know is if anybody who is reading this sees this and comes up to the show, be sure to find us because we love hanging out with people, we love talking to them, we love partying. There are 10 bands, we know all your favourite bands, so if you find us we’ll find a rock star and hang out with them. We love to get down and that’s how we fill our days is hanging out with people.