### The Black Dahlia Murder: Everblack

#### 16/08/13 || The Duff

The Black Dahlia Murder are a melodic death metal band, accessible, catchy and very, very good. The musicians have always displayed a high quality to their playing, but never at the expense of good songwriting nor the infectiousness of their music. “Everblack” is the band’s sixth album in a consistent career that has never shocked the metal scene but steadily stridden alongside it, comfortably doing its own thing of black-melodic death.

I lost them one album ago, thinking that their value for me personally was made obsolete four records in with “Deflorate”; their debut was great, their sophomore probably their peak although debatably so on the strength of the staggeringly good “Nocturnal”, “Deflorate” seemed, with newcomer Arsis’ Ryan Knight on shred-detail, just as good bang for your buck despite Eschbach being practically the sole writing credit with the departure of original member John Kempainen – a faster-paced record, perhaps, but the band has hardly deviated from its path since “Miasma”.

New record “Everblack” continues this sentiment. Once more, very, very good music, I can’t fault it; we are treated to newcomer Alan Cassidy, replicating the understated drumming of now departed long-time member Shannon Lucas, the hook-riddled, crunchy guitars (as always masterfully mixed, courtesy of regular collaborators Jason Suecof of Capharnaum and Crotchduster fame and Alan Douches), flashy, well-phrased and very technical leads courtesy of Ryan Knight (admittedly detracting some from the original nature of Kempainen, although this is like wanting a regular hamburger in place of a bacon and cheese, or a white prostitute in place of an Asian one, who are frankly more humble and less likely to rob you when innocently catching up on z’s through embarrassingly prolonged refractory periods).

Finally, the dark/occult/supernatural bordering-on-poetic lyrics of Strnad, delivered with his template and rather flexible vocals that have remained pretty much consistent over the course of six albums, rasping and guttural, tie off everything wonderfully – although not of the most forceful nor distinguished, comprising a drier tone than most, you cannot deny that there are few as passionate frontmen in the industry (and I might add a commendably ardent and vocal supporter of anything metal, no matter the tag).

Part of me thinks with the packaging, the air of the album is an attempt to evoke the same ghoulish atmosphere as that on “Nocturnal” (and perhaps the diversity of that album as well, a quick revisit to “Deflorate” revealing they may have lost the knack for colourful dynamics back in 2009; not so with “Everblack”, perhaps as a result of Ryan Knight’s settling into the band’s folds and new addition Max Lavelle on the bass), but the band has clearly moved on from three records back; there is a lightness to this music that has gradually seeped in from the band’s early days, a more fun flare.

Despite tracks like “Phantom Limb Masturbation”, “Into the Everblack”, “Blood Mine”, “Every Rope a Noose” and parts of “Control” harkening to the glory, macabre days, generally we are at a more upbeat fare of melodic death metal, or a rousing style of death-thrash, melodic/classical, and if not any of these then a mock sort of sombre (as a narrative, Tim Burton-esque filmscore, all quaint with an underlying sense for rottenness) – just ballsy, riotous and fun metal, in short, you bug-eyed freak.

Some of the leads here are haunting, and elsewhere we are treated to the ongoing creativity of triplet-ensembles, good ol’ fashioned At the Gates. With “Every Rope a Noose” we are treated to some Bathory/Burzum/Gorgoroth and Darkthrone influence (to name all of the originators to hide my floundering for a lack of knowledge), as well as more melodic and atmospheric, tight-quarters black metal (with harpsichord?). It is at this point that the band’s talent is made evident, as the record is once more a varied, well aligned flow of many of metal’s moods, essentially the pick of the litter from trawling to rapid-fire, twin-guitar attacks.

The Black Dahlia are a gifted outfit, a dark horse for sure, and undervalued in the mastery of their trade. This record is a fine example of their calibre which remains entirely unfaltering, and although I’ve yet to check out “Ritual”, it seems as though we are at another masterpiece that does not outshine the metal scene but exemplifies just how satisfying the genre can be when done the right way, with heart as a cornerstone and thought for something of more substance than technical wizardry: just the basics, outstandingly well crafted songs and killer riffs.

- Information
- Released: 2013
- Label: Metal Blade Records
- Website: The Black Dahlia Murder MySpace
- Band
- Brian Eschbach: guitars
- Alan Cassidy: drums
- Max Lavelle: bass
- Ryan Knight: guitars
- Trevor Strnad: vocals

- Tracklist
- 01. In Hell Is Where She Waits for Me
- 02. Goat of Departure
- 03. Into the Everblack
- 04. Raped in Hatred by Vines of Thorn
- 05. Phantom Limb Masturbation
- 06. Control
- 07. Blood Mine
- 08. Every Rope a Noose
- 09. Their Beloved Absentee
- 10. Map of Scars