ALBUM REVIEW: Get your neckbrace on for The Black Dahlia Murder new slab Nightbringers

Michigan melodic death metal flag bearers The Black Dahlia Murder follow up their 2015 skull rattler ‘Abysmal’ with the equally satisfying ‘Nightbringers’.

The first track, ‘Widowmaker’ starts off so eerily and then come the riffs! Unbelievable fretwork and superhuman blastbeats accompany a scream straight from the pit of Hell. The vocals are filled with hatred and animosity, the lead work is insane, and the drums and bass absolutely monstrous.

‘Of God and Serpent, of Spectre and Snake’ just grabs you immediately and pulls you kicking and screaming into a mire of brutal riffage and a drumbeat that’ll give you Vietnam flashbacks. It’s heavier than a pair of concrete shoes, the vocal work is vicious and the solo is superb.

The albums third track ‘Matriarch’ is fast, furious and wickedly intricate. Melodic and savage in equal measure the tight double kick drumming and pulverising riffs will have you banging your head into the wall. The vocals are wonderful, switching from a higher melodic style of death metal to brutal roars with ease. The lead playing, yet again, is on another level.

The title track ‘Nightbringers’ is ridiculously heavy. There is a real sense of the old school Gothenburg melodic death metal scene going on throughout this track. The vocals, the heavy melodic guitar riffs and the lightning fast drums just scream Swedish melodic death! The solo comes out of nowhere, devastating your eardrums and making your eyes bleed.

‘Jars’ just starts with blasts and pummelling riffage and continues the intensity throughout. The leadwork is like a Turkish kebab at 3am, so tasty and probably bad for your insides. The vocals are that of pure aggression, the drumming is intensely fast and the pile of riffs causes complete carnage.
The solo will give you an aneurysm or seven.

The sixth track, ‘Kings of the Nightworld’, starts with a load of pinch harmonics woven into an unbelievably technical guitar riff. The drumming is killer, bouncing from the groovy to the extreme with supersonic double kicks. The vocals are strong and dynamic, and the solos are frighteningly good. You’ll be chanting along to the chorus on this one too.

‘Catacomb Hecatomb’ is brutal from the first note, blastbeats and melodic fretwork fire the track along at a panic inducing pace. The vocal work crushes everything in its path with uncontrollable anger. The chorus is wonderfully melodic in contrast to the verse and it works so well. There is one riff in there just after the chorus that will make you want to rip your own head off and hurl it at innocent bystanders. It is powerful! You will require neck surgery, you have been warned.

‘As Good as Dead’ immediately starts with technical fretboard wizardry before aurally assaulting you with razor sharp playing and hammering double kick drumming. It’s so heavy and catchy at the same time. The vocals fit perfectly with the music in their intensity. The solo... that solo! It’s hard to put into words just how good the solo is. It’s insanely melodic, intricate, technical... it’s simply wonderful. This track will get stuck in your head. A definite favourite.

The final track, ‘The Lonely Deceased’ has a really great bassline that’s accompanied by an almost melodic black metal riff and blastbeat after blastbeat after glorious blastbeat. There is so much melody and power throughout the track. The vocals are absolutely killer and the lead work, much like the rest of the album, is razor sharp and so on point you’ll cut yourself on it. A strong end to a strong album!

If you’re a fan of wearing a neckbrace and sounding like you’ve drank bleach for three days straight get this album. You’ll scream yourself hoarse, you’ll crack a few vertebrae and you’ll love every second of it.

Review by Phil Noonan.

ALBUM REVIEW: It might be called Abysmal but The Black Dahlia Murder are anything but

THEY are amongst the most revered of extreme metal acts, and they have delivered consistently since they formed and in 2013 The Black Dahlia Murder released the outstanding 'Everblack', an album of fierce intent and outstanding ferocity. Now, in 2015 can they top that?

Sit down, source your inner metal demon and listen to 'Abysmal' - one of the most ferocious, yet balanced extreme metal albums in a long, long time. Raw, angry and perfect to rip up lifetimes of pretentious shit you have had to put up with.

The title track alone will induce neck ache as you impulsively bang your head and cause jaw ache as you try to comprehend what The Black Dahlia Murder have achieved here.

"Once the record started to come together we knew it was going to be something special," said vocalist Trevor Strnad.

"It's more urgent, it has more dynamics, it's a more emotive record, and it has a more raw, angry sound to it. It's still million mile-per-hour death metal, but when you invest so much thought and emotion into what you're creating you end up with a record that does stand out, and we can hold our heads up high and say yeah, this is our best work."
This really is 100% melodic death metal, ferocity married with a sense of what can be achieved through arrangements and balanced guitar and rhythm work. But that is not to say that the band has remained shackled by past glories.

"I still love Everblack and everything we achieved when touring it, and in fact going into that record we faced a massive challenge in following up Ritual (2011), which had also been huge for us," said Strnad.  "Having two records in a row connect with fans in such a way was amazing, but definitely piled on the pressure going into this new one, because we don't want to let them down, and we don't want to let ourselves down. But we learned a lot in making those two records, and we brought that into Abysmal.

"We know we can take people's heads off playing super fast, but that doesn't always give listeners something to really chew on. We've learned to focus on creating some drama, interesting dynamics, and most importantly really investing time in thinking about how different parts of songs will make you feel." 

We have to confess when we read the PR blurb and quotations like those above our initial response was that cynical Northern Ireland "Aye, dead on!" In this case we were wrong, because this is an album that has sheer brutality in every aspect of its songs.

The likes of 'The Fog' and 'Threat Level Number Three' show case the type of metal that needs - yes needs - a wider listenership.

Drummer Alan Cassidy, who joined the band in 2013 combines with Max Lavelle (bass) to give it a live vibe that some had doubted the band could ever achieve again.

Brian (Eschbach, guitar) performs at a level that TBDM have always promised and taken that to the next level in combination with Ryan Knight's six string heroics. The level of riffing is at times extraordinary. Check out the opening of 'Asylum' and pick your jaw off the floor.

What makes Knight's work all the more impressive is that for every shred there is subtlety that harkens back to the NWOBHM.

Just as Everblack tested the boundaries of blasphemy this time out lyrically they challenge perceptions of an afterlife - and the current age - by exploring hell on literal and metaphorical terms. In this sanatised society which other genre would tackle the topic of the issues facing a rapist/molester -  chemically castrated - talking to his inner demons as he tries to assimilate back into the real world. This is uncomfortable listening, but it is a societal issue that the 'talking heads' chatter about while the tabloids pontificate about.

Hell is not a one-dimensional Biblical story here - hell is a complicated personal journey and a phantasmagorical fantasy landscape. 'Vlad, Son Of The Dragon' touches on the Stoker tale of Dracula, while recalling the brutal history of Vlad The Impaler.

But, amidst this controversial back drop there is a defiance, a fuck you attitude, a stand that says we are who we are. Closer 'That Cannot Die Which Eternally Is Dead' is a single finger salute to the doubters: it's a declaration that this band are going to keep on delivering and keep on the metal path.

What impresses more is the very sound - no sampling, no over dubs, no post-production pissing about. This is metal as it should be - people playing metal and playing it with an intensity that deserves listening to.

At this stage in the game, with typically modest aspirations, Strnad is more interested in maintaining their longevity than shifting records, and if the band never gets any bigger than they are right now he will "die happy a hundred times over". However, this does not mean there is anything even vaguely resembling an end in sight. "We're still young at heart and I feel like the evolution of the band still has a long way to go. I don't see a ceiling on what we can do, and there will be no end. It's just going to be a constant ongoing fight to make better music and be a better band, and it's always going to be time to kick ass."

If this is what The Black Dahlia Murder can achieve in 2015 we cannot wait until the next 10 years of this band.

 

Review by Jonny

 

The Black Dahlia Murder release Abysmal on Metal Blade Records on 18th September

 

 

NEWS: The Black Dahlia Murder prepare for release of Abysmal

OUR death/black metal correspondent, Zakk, went the north side of ape shit in anticipation of the new release from The Black Dahlia Murder on September 18th...and we can't blame him if their last release is anything to go by.

'Abysmal' is the name of what the band and their PR promise to be a "vicious slab of unrelenting aggression'. Well it's The Black Dahlia Murder, we expect nothing less!

Pre-orders for 'Abysmal' open on June 24th at the band's new official website.

"The new album 'Abysmal' is true to The Black Dahlia Murder formula but further down the evolutionary path we began with our 'Ritual' release," said vocalist Trevor Strnad. "It has a bigger, more dynamic and developed songs.

"It sees the band in a darker, faster and more melancholic place than anything we've done to date. It is an album wrought [with] emotion on a scale that we haven't reached with our previous attempts. It's dripping with an urgency, and an undeniable sincere life and death purpose.

"It has moments of triumph and moments of utter abandon and defeat. It runs the gamut."

Well that sounds good...

As if that wasn't enough Strnad has launched a new column called 'The Obituarist' on one of the other websites...in which he picks what he considers to be the best of the death metal underground.

Well he should make his wee way over to check out some of Northern Ireland's bands!