Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Nightbringers

This is an exciting review. It marks the end of another Mass Burial project, one that introduced me to a band I was unfamiliar with and yielded a lot of positive exposure. It made me a fan of a new band, one that I had consciously ignored for many years. And, it concludes with a brand new album, released in 2017, so I can add another current year record to my list of things I’ve heard this year.

Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Abysmal

When I was looking up information on Ritual, I found a quote from vocalist Trevor Strnad where he says that, during the writing of said album, The Black Dahlia Murder just wanted to write the most-Black Dahlia Murder album that they possibly could. I would argue that the distinction of the band trying their best to write the most them record would go to Abysmal. Everything that you know and like or love (or hate) about this band in found in equal parts on this album.

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.

Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Ritual

Boy, you think you have a band figured.

Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Deflorate

The fourth record by The Black Dahlia Murder, and another time where the same words and descriptions filter through my mind. Melodic Death metal. Gothenburg. Competent. I feel like this reminds me of X from year Y.

I kind of feel that I’m doing the band a disservice.

But Deflorate is different, somehow. Deflorate offers some type of . . . difference.

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.

Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Miasma

The second album from The Black Dahlia Murder takes on more of a traditional Death metal feel, still retaining the Swedeath vocal style but musically moving into a more solid, less hyperkinetic musical direction. This is not to say that’s a bad thing, as it works for the band and their style. Some Gothenburg elements are still present, but this time around, they are more accents or flourishes, as can be heard in “Statutory Ape”. Songs like “A Vulgar Picture” retain the Swedish much more obviously, but other songs do show signs of moving away from that. A super fast 33 minutes, Miasma does a lot of work in a pretty short time.

Mass Burial: The Black Dahlia Murder, Unhallowed

I have a friend who loves this band, but they’ve never really made much of an impression on me. In the early 2000s, The Black Dahlia Murder gained attention for being comprised of teenagers and playing what sounded like a fairly competent version of Swedeath, which, during those same early 2000s, was the sexy subgenre of Metal of the day. This was back in the day, those good old days, when a band full of younger people was viewed more often as being the future of a scene, or a sign that the scene was alive and communicating with the younger generation, or that the seeds of the future were beginning to sprout. You know, generally good things, unlike today, where a similar youthful band would be greeted with skepticism or scorn, cast off as sell outs or a corporate creation meant to capitalize and cash in. I heard this album back in the day, and saw the band open for Suffocation in early 2005, but was never all that impressed. My only real memory from the show was that they had to finish their set a song or two early because they had to be on their bus by curfew, because they were all underage at the time. The album never made an impression on me, and I’m not entirely sure why: during those years, Swedish melodeath was all the rage, and the titans of the form at the time (In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, ) were releasing good material; the corpse of At the Gates was still reasonably fresh, or at least, was in that stage of decomposition where mourners had at least seen it, unlike today, when recent album notwithstanding, most people talk about At the Gates as a band they’ve heard, and not one that was active not that long ago.