Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Everblack

Following the letdown (because I can’t think of anything else to call it) of Ritual, The Black Dahlia Murder returned with  Everblack. And things got right back to where they were, which is good. This is a record that is much more like it for the band, and even as an admittedly casual listener, I appreciate this a whole lot more than I did the previous outing.

Everblack returns to all the things that made the first four albums so much fun to listen to. There’s nothing out of the ordinary or revolutionary going on here, but the speed and the riffs are back, the Swedeathness is back, the fun is back. Where Ritual was plodding and dull, Everblack returns to that formula of fast and fun that not only the early works, but Swedish Melodic Death metal in general, possesses.

I am trying to hold back a really unsavory analogy here, but I think it is contextually appropriate and is not intended to be as inflammatory as it most probably will end up being. I think that good Melodic or Swedish Death metal ends up being a lot like mall punk. It’s fun, and it makes you feel happy to listen to it. You know that it appeals to millions of fans, but it usually ends up being a thing that some people don’t mind but don’t hate. It hints at the “danger” and “realism” of “more serious” brands of music, while being slick and shiny and accessible. The Black Dahlia Murder is not mall punk, not even in spirit or in theory, but they are accessible and shiny and fun, and they make me happy to listen to them. None of these things appear to be qualities the band shuns either, as when they are producing what I’d call their best music, they are fully embracing these qualities. It’s not to say they are pedestrian or anything, far from it. If anyone has read the previous five entries in this Mass Burial, I don’t think they could accuse me of promoting that idea.    I really liked the Swedish Death metal style in the early 2000’s when it was blowing up in the underground, but it always felt like a lighter brand of metal music. Not to say it is bad, or anything negative, really. I amassed many CDs of this genre, and heard and enjoyed almost all of them. Some of the bands that I find myself most furiously trying to remember all these years afterwards end up being these kind of melodeath bands. Always fun music for driving around or tossing on in the car for a sunny spring morning drive to work, the kind of morning that lets you believe that summer is coming, this has always been great music for getting hyped or anticipating a good time, but I’ve never found it to be the most long-term satisfying of metal genres. I have always appreciated Swedeath’s hybrid of Thrash and Death metal, but with it being neither Thrash nor Death enough, it always has difficulty taking root in my musical soul.

But I digress. Everblack is supposed to be the focal point of this. It really is a good record, not only because it comes after the disappointing Ritual, but because it is a legitimate and quality record. There are four absolutely stand out tracks, and the rest of the album, while I wouldn’t call it anything negative, serves the purpose of being competent metal tunes that hold interest and satisfy. It could be a case of songs like “Every Rope A Noose,” “Into the Everblack,” “Their Beloved Absentee,” and album opener “In Hell Is Where She Waits For Me” being so good that the others are just ‘good’ by comparison. Everblack is kind of a return to the Unhallowed/Miasma arrangement of Black Dahlia Murder records, where everything is of quality and likeable, just not a case where something jumps out at you as being a clear cut winner for the album. But those four songs make this album worth revisiting over and over.

The last album I really liked was Deflorate, and I think Everblack checks all the same boxes as that one does. The vocals, something that has gone largely unaddressed over the course of this project, are clear and strong, the standard Gothenburg shriek but not a delivery that tries to be the highest shriek or the sharpest, as some vocalists of the form strive for. Vocals are clear, in that lyrics can be understood, but still delivered in a gruff, course fashion. Some vocalists in the genre seem to target just shrieking, just rasping, at the expense of quality, aiming for an ‘extreme’ or ‘anguished’ approach that sacrifices clarity and, in my opinion, enjoyability. Not an issue here. Again, the drumming is excellent, pretty consistent double bass work that feels like it serves a purpose instead of just being the standard or expected percussion accompaniment for this type of music. Guitars chug along and the solos are once more fitting and satisfying, melodic and skillful.

I think it’s also unfair of me to keep labeling the band as working in the Gothenburg style. While that is a perfectly legit genre tag for the band, they have done enough with the style that I think it’s safe to say they have made it their own. To keep referring to them by Swedish as an adjective I think shortchanges them as musicians. In the time of the Unhallowed review, I spoke of the hype the band was garnering with that record, and apparently they continued to receive a lot of hype. This, naturally, caused people to hate them for reasons of exposure or popularity, as has happened with so, so many good and deserving bands, and will probably continue forever. While I wound up missing a whole lot of that, I can certainly understand how and why it happens. But The Black Dahlia Murder is a good band, and they are consistent in what they produce. If you like that, as I have for the vast majority of this project, they are a good band. If you don’t like that for whatever reasons, then they probably suck. But this is another Black Dahlia record, and for me at least, that means a good, enjoyable time.