Band Origin: Waterford, Michigan, USA
Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore / Deathcore
Label: Metal Blade
Running Time: 45 minutes
Release Date: June 17, 2011
Best Part: Trevor Strnad's vocal work.
Favorite Tracks: Moonlight Equilibrium, On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood, The Window, The Raven, and Conspiring with the Damned
Grade: 4.5
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Ritual in way more than 20 words or less:
The Black Dahlia Murder's fifth full-length album takes a step forward from the success of Deflorate and gives people another reason to question why anyone would label the band without the term melodic being involved.
The Band:
The Black Dahlia Murder are a five piece melodic death metal band from Michigan who are obviously not your standard order melodic death metal band. The band has found themselves more often tagged as a metalcore or even deathcore band because of Trevor Strnad's deeper death growls and piercing shrieks, and the bands heavier play style. The band however takes its primary influence from Carcass and Swedish melodic death metal bands, and then merges it with some American influence such as Florida based death metal acts like Morbid Angel - that would be early era Morbid Angel, not that travesty I told you all about yesterday. The combination is something that sometimes walk a fine line between styles which have their fair share of differences, but the end result is something brutal, melodic and original all in its own right.
The Black Dahlia Murder are a five piece melodic death metal band from Michigan who are obviously not your standard order melodic death metal band. The band has found themselves more often tagged as a metalcore or even deathcore band because of Trevor Strnad's deeper death growls and piercing shrieks, and the bands heavier play style. The band however takes its primary influence from Carcass and Swedish melodic death metal bands, and then merges it with some American influence such as Florida based death metal acts like Morbid Angel - that would be early era Morbid Angel, not that travesty I told you all about yesterday. The combination is something that sometimes walk a fine line between styles which have their fair share of differences, but the end result is something brutal, melodic and original all in its own right.
Jay's Take on Ritual:
The Black Dahlia Murder is one of those bands that I like to believe are at the center of bridging the gap between metal sub-genres that are generally mutually exclusive. But more so because they have often been labeled because of their look and on stage presence, rather than the sounds that come from that stage. So argue every which way you want about where the band fits in the grand scheme of things, but Ritual is easily the bands' best record to date and a great follow up to their previous release Deflorate. The blend of influences that one gets to experience on this record is apparent from track to track, and often sends you flying between the spectrum of melodic harmony and distorted, beastly heaviness, of which neither side is in short supply. The best part is when the two come crashing together to create some of the nastiest and beautiful music at once. The instrumentation and Trevor's vocal work on Ritual fits like a glove, with Trevor's lyrics coming in loud and clear, whether in the form of his piercing quick shrieks or deliberate, throaty growls. Each track is strung together by a careful balance of rhythm, speed and melody which includes a mixed bag of tricks that they incorporate from the many great influences they have. There are definitely moments while listening to a record like this where I get a nostalgic reel to listen to records like Heartwork. The album boasts some tight guitar melodies and some rightfully tasty guitar solos. The Black Dahlia Murder definitely covered all their bases with their most recent release.
Sample of the Day:
- J
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