1. Every Inch Of You
2. Nothin's Gonna Stop Us
3. With A Woman
4. Keep Me Hangin' On
5. Living Each Day Blind
6. Everybody Have a Good Time
7. She Just A Girl, Eddie
8. Forbidden Love
9. Concrete
10. Street Spirit (Fade Out)
11. Love Is Not The Answer

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008GFI4KY/?tag=imwan-20

Hot off their face-melting reunion at this year’s Download Festival, The Darkness are back in the studio. The Lowestoft-based group are looking to pick up where they left off in 2006, when they broke up on the heels of their second album, One Way Ticket to Hell… and Back. Now, the boys who belted “I Believe in a Thing Called Love” are putting the finishing touches on their third album, a disc singer Justin Hawkins links to some of rock’s heaviest hitters.

Hawkins told Total Guitar, "Home is where the heart is. When you write songs, you need a grounding to set the stories in. There's a lot about small-town life. The album has songs about stuff that's happened to us in the town. It’s AC/DC, Queen, Aerosmith, etcetera."

Regarding the group’s most noticeable influence, Queen, Hawkins said that the band put a lot of thought into just how much of Freddie Mercury and company they can wear on their proverbial sleeves. "We could do all those big Queen arrangements,” he pondered. “It's just whether we want to. Do you overblow it? Do you underblow it?”

The as-yet-untitled album is set for release later this year.

I admit it-I love these guys. Queen vocal harmonies, Thin Lizzy lead harmonies, great hooks, and Sweet-like tracks. I thought both albums were great, especially the Roy Thomas Baker produced 2nd album which bombed in the US.
They are very talented musicians who ham it up and wonderfully so. I look forward to this and I hope I'm not the only one here, but I wouldn't be shocked if people hate them!

I'm with you IP. I love both their albums and really hated that they broke up. Glad to hear it was only briefly.

Really, really fun stuff. I hope they don't tone it down too much for the new one. Part of what made them so great was their unapologetic balls-to-the-wall attitude. Music could use more of that these days.

I'm with you on the 2nd album, IP. I liked the first one but thought it was a little too silly & campy, even though you could tell they had talent. Not sure why the second one bombed, as they were primed to explode in the US. Didn't Guitar Hero & Rock Band get started that year? I'm sure budding fake-guitarists would've loved pretending to play along with that record. I'm curious to hear something new from them.

The second one bombed for many reasons:
- rock, as an unfortunately dying format, was successful for them on the first album because of the camp and novelty. The second album was better in a lot of ways but the novelty had worn off. They delivered in every way, but the "listen to how retro these guys sound" was no longer going to get them airplay on it's own.

- rock, as an unfortunately dying format, is only given a small portion of the promotional dollars needed to make any album successful. The fact that it was on WB at a time when WB was lacking any kind of stability didn't help.

- no radio hit. Great songs, but nothing that you'd expect radio to play.

- instability of the band itself. If I remember correctly, there were rumors the band was breaking up (or firing the lead singer because of drugs) even before the album was released. I don't think the band did much to promote it - especially in the US.

I really, really hope that the band doesn't put too much stock into the second one bombing and change their sound because of it. No rock album is going to do amazing business these days and their first was an anomaly. If they could've just stayed together and remained consistent, I have no doubt they'd have amassed a pretty big following by now. Unfortunately, their hiatus means they're almost going to have to start over from scratch again.

A lack of budget and the uncertainty due to the bombing of the second disc makes me concerned that whatever they end up putting out may be completely different than what we would expect.

The Darkness have set a August 21st released date for their comeback album, Hot Cakes.
Hot Cakes was produced by the band's Justin and Dan Hawkins with long-time collaborator Nick Brine and mixed by Bob Ezrin.

The Darkness kick off an Australian tour this week (May 4) before returning to the U.S. May 18 for select dates and three festival appearances: Saturday, May 19 at InfieldFest (Baltimore, MD), Sunday, May 20 at Rock On The Range (Columbus, OH) and Saturday, May 26 at Rocklahoma.

Following the U.S. shows, they'll perform festivals across the U.K. and Europe as well as a hometown outdoor headlining gig at Thetford Fest in Suffolk before teaming with Lady Gaga for her "Born This Way Ball" tour.

5/4 Brisbane, Australia Eaton Hill
5/5 Newcastle, Australia Workers
5/6 Sydney, Australia Roundhouse
5/8 Melbourne, Australia Palace
5/9 Melbourne, Australia Palace
5/10 Canberra, Australia ANU
5/12 Adelaide, Australia TheBarton Theatre
5/18 New Haven, CT Toad's Place
5/19 Baltimore, MD InfieldFest
5/20 Columbus, OH Rock on the Range Festival
5/22 Nashville, TN Marathon Music Works
5/23 New Orleans, LA House of Blues
5/25 Austin, TX Stubb's
5/26 Pryor, OK Rocklahoma Festival
5/27 Dallas, TX House Of Blues
6/2 Trondheim, Norway Trondheim Rock
6/8 Solvesburg, Sweden Sweden Rock
6/16 Spain Plein Air
6/23 Milan, Italy Gods of Metal Festival
6/24 UK Isle of Wight Festival
6/29 Belgrade, Serbia Usce Park
7/6 Kinross, Scotland T in the Park
7/7 Amneville, France Snowhall Parc
7/8 France Sonisphere
7/14 Suffolk, UK Thetford Forest
8/4 Oder, Poland Woodstock Festival

8/14 Sofia, Bulgaria Vasil Levski National Stadium
8/16 Bucharest, Romania Arena Nationala Stadium
8/18 Vienna, Austria Wiener Stadhalle
8/21 Vilnius, Lithuania Vingis Park
8/23 Riga, Latvia Mezaparks
8/25 Tallinn Tallinn Song Festival Grounds
8/27 Helsinki, Finland Hartwell Arena
8/30 Stockholm, Sweden Ericsson Globe
9/2 Copenhagen, Denmark Parken Stadium
9/4 Koln, Germany Lanxess Arena
9/5 Koln, Germany Lanxess Arena
9/8 London, UK Twickenham
9/9 London, UK Twickenham
9/11 Manchester, UK Evening News Arena
9/15 Dublin. Ireland Aviva Stadium
9/17 Amsterdam, Netherlands Ziggo Dome
9/18 Amsterdam, Netherlands Ziggo Dome
9/22 Paris, France Stade de France
9/24 Hannover, Germany TUI Arena
9/26 Zurich, Switzerland Hallenstadion
9/27 Zurich, Switzerland Hallenstadion
9/29 Wilrijk, Belgium Sportpaleis
9/29 Wilrijk, Belgium Sportpaleis
10/2 Milan, Italy Mediolanum Forum
10/4 Nice, France Stade Charles-Ehrmann
10/6 Barcelona, Spain Palau St Jordi

I can tell you that every new song they played when we saw them in Februrary was a winner and had amazing guitar work. With Ezrin involved (even just mixing) I can't imagine this album being anything but great. I very much look forward to this one and I'm sure it will be nice and short!

Very psyched for this one. The first single was pretty awful though.

For those of you who like The Darkness, check out Foxy Shazam's "The Church Of Rock & Roll". Great stuff.

Bump-cover art and track listing and link now added.

P.S.
Foxy Shazam who opened for The Darkness was the worst musical tragedy I have ever witnessed live. I will never get those 30 minutes back. At least they thought they were funny.

That's too bad IP. I've enjoyed their latest quite a bit.

The album isn't bad at all and has some moments that I were pleased with-the live performance was a intentionally drunken, unprofessional shambles and insulting. Turned me off forever. Shame-I heard a little Queen, Elton John, Sweet and Darkness in there, but is was horrendous. We all had our jaws drop.

Just picked this up...on first listen I'm liking this....glad to hear a band that can actually play and has some serious energy and songwriting abilities...always liked these guys - glad they're back...

The Darkness are coming to America but are only planning two concerts, but fans across the country will have the chance to watch one of the shows on TV.
The Darkness plan shows on Sunday, October 21 in New York City at Terminal 5 and Wednesday, October 24 in Los Angeles at Club Nokia.

Although the above dates mark the only remaining U.S. shows for 2012, their Club Nokia concert will be broadcast as an exclusive television event on AXS TV on Wednesday, October 24 (10:00 Pm Pdt).

9/24 Hannover, Germany TUI Arena
9/26 Zurich, Switzerland Hallenstadion
9/29 Antwerp, Belgium Sportpaleis
10/2 Milan, Italy Mediolanum Forum
10/4 Nice, France Stade Charles-Ehrmann
10/6 Barcelona, Spain Palau St Jordi
10/21 New York, NY Terminal 5 *HEADLINING
10/24 Los Angeles, CA Club Nokia *HEADLINING
10/26 Mexico City, Mexico Foro Sol
10/30 San Juan, Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum
11/9 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Parque dos Atletas
11/11 Sao Paulo, Brazil Estádio do Morumbi
11/16 Buenos Aires, Argentina Estadio River Plate
11/20 Santiago, Chile Estadio Nacional de Santiago