Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Nocturnal

The Black Dahlia Murder’s third album Nocturnal is the one that people seem to rave about. Or, at least, it is the album that other people have told me I would eventually appreciate most. Out of only three albums to this point, I’d say that I agree with all of them, but I fear that this article will prove something of a backhanded compliment.

Again, it appears the band has crafted a record of strong songs, maybe more akin to the debut Unhallowed than the follow up Miasma. The Gothenburg elements on Nocturnal are front and center once more, after their seemingly being lessened on Miasma, and album that sounded more “traditional” US Death metal than the Swedish counterpart. It is clearly a style that the band is comfortable in, and good at, having now worked it over the course of three records.

Of the first three albums, this one may be the best and most complete. I suppose that is intended to mean that it is the first real instance where the band sounds like themselves. The debut album will always, for me at least, being from that time period, be the work of young dudes trying to write the Swedish style. The second sounds a little different. But Nocturnal sounds like The Black Dahlia Murder, like a band that has found its thing, and focuses on doing said thing. The hallmark elements of the previous two albums are here as well: some really tight drumming, good riffs and on occasion, an absolutely perfect guitar solo approach, one both melodic and appropriate to the general sound, seemingly coming right out of the Swedish guitar manual. But by now, the band isn’t aping that style or trying to mimic it if we want to present that in a less unflattering way; they are flat out writing in the style, because they have mastered it. No longer teenagers trying to be a Swedeath band, by this point in time, the band is writing Swedeath music. And that always seems unkind, to boil the work down to “pretty good Swedish metal for an American band.” I think it is also important to keep The Black Dahlia Murder in the context of the scene at the time: most of the American bands that were attempting this style were essentially converted Hardcore bands, who may have been doing fine work but were not really trying to approximate the Gothenburg bands so much as they bore some similarity to them, and thus were lumped in with them. The Black Dahlia Murder was always doing this kind of musical thing, and on purpose. They weren’t of the same style through the impact of some marketing tag or whatnot. Perhaps I place too much emphasis on that concept, and perhaps it doesn’t matter.

Another short affair, this album packs in a lot of good music. Songs like “Worship Only What You Bleed,” “Virally Yours,” “What A Horrible Night to Have a Curse,” and “To A Breathless Oblivion” are stand out tracks, while the rest of the album is in the same vein if slightly less memorable. It reminds me of other, earlier early 2000s albums from the genre that did basically the same thing. Albums by actual Swedish bands like Carnal Forge or Impious, where there were a couple songs that took up residence in your head, that you knew the titles of against the backdrop of other songs that weren’t bad but you didn’t commit memory space to. I have previously referred to The Black Dahlia Murder as being that “party band” type of outfit that could be on in the background of a gathering and would be totally fine with just about everyone present, but now I feel I need to offer a different label.

Back in the early 2000s, when I first got a CD player installed in my car, I’d occasionally go out on summer nights and just drive around listening to music. I wasn’t actually going anywhere, and I’d just point the car in a direction and put something in the CD player.  I spent many quality nights this way, driving around and smoking and drinking a soda, the pinnacle of bad assery. On many a night like those, I’d run through whatever the new Swedeath buzz release was, and that was when I’d found bands like Carnal Forge, who I really enjoyed then and occasionally still do, or the plethora of also-rans whose names are largely lost to history. You know, those bands that had like one or two records in 2004 but, if they released a new one now, would be hailed as returning ‘legends’ of the scene. There was always a magical feel to those drives, and sometimes I find myself looking into bands I remember from those times to find out what they’re up to now or whatever. Nocturnal gives me memories of that feeling when I’d driving to work in the morning, so that’s got to count for something.

Just as their first album reminds me of a time more than anything else, so does this one. Personally, I value music more when it causes me to have some kind of emotional response, whatever that may be. Songs don’t have to make me cry or anything that literal, but when I hear something that makes me think of other times or other places, I find the music ends up being more valuable to me. I began this Mass Burial project by stating that The Black Dahlia Murder is a band that I have no attachment to, but they constantly remind me of times that I do feel some attachment to. That, for me, is a constant win for the band, and it is something that keeps me plugging along from album to album thus far. 

I really, really like this album. When all is said and this Mass Burial project is done, Nocturnal may be the one album that I keep in rotation. It's good not for just reasons of nostalgia or the thoughts or feelings it evokes in me; it is a legitimately solid record.