THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER
UNHALLOWED
METALBLADE
LINKS:
metalblade

Abandon hope all ye who dare listen to this album. Metalblade rookies The Black Dahlia Murder--named after one of the most grizzly murders in U.S history--cast listeners into the deepest, darkest chasms of hell on their debut LP Unhallowed.

After only a few short months of recording, the Detroit-based death-metal quintet has managed to produce a 10-song set of some of the most sonically-brutal music heard this year.

The title track sounds as if recorded in a dragon’s lair; a deep, low rumbling as an eerie prelude to the insanity that soon follows. The band explodes on “Funeral Thirst”. The precision of the rhythm guitars and the drums playing in unison in the intro is awe-inspiring; the staccato, guitar riffs and the short drum bursts together sound like a war march of some ancient army of the dead. Without warning, they kick into full speed-metal fury. Aside from the musicianship, the vocal complexity is amazing. Ferocious lyrics. Nice loud-soft dynamics; sounds like Cradle of Filth shrieking playing off of standard death-metal growling. The tempo slows down at the bridge, getting into a serious Pantera-esque groove before diving back into head-banging lunacy. “Elder Misanthropy” follows the same format as “Funeral Thirst”. Same shrieking vs. growling dynamic. The guitars have been tuned down a step, adding a touch more ferocity as they weave in and out between machine-gun jaggedness and slow, power grooves. Exceptional drumming; belted out with machine-gun speed and razor-sharp accuracy. My only criticism of the song (and the entire album) is the vocals. They’re near un-intelligible. The only thing that makes them bearable is the viciousness of the delivery.
On “Horror Cosmic”, The Black Dahlia Murder slow down the tempo considerably, but they still sound heavy as hell. Hearty, crunchy riffs countered with colorful, whammy bar bursts give the song depth. The vocals, although still un-intelligible, are well-arranged; create cohesion between light and dark. The drumming has so many layers to it, yet it manages to hold everything together.
They lash out a ruthless, bludgeoning of lightening speed thrashing on “Closed Casket Requim” and the outro “Apex”. Each song is filled with guttural screams and ferocious growls, nerve-racking guitar bursts and ultra-precise drumming. A furious ending to a monstrous debut LP. After signing to Metalblade, The Black Dahlia Murder promised to produce their best work to date. They’ve, indeed, kept their promise. If Unhallowed is indicative of what is to come, this band will have a long career.

----Eric V. White