### The Black Dahlia Murder: Nocturnal

#### 03/10/07 || The Duff

To the disdain of many, my review of The Black Dahlia Murder’s last album, “Miasma”, showed nothing but praise for the band, as I found that they managed to avoid being criticized for their very obvious melodeath worship purely by writing music of an outstanding quality. It is on the basis that “Miasma” was a great effort yet delivering nothing new that I looked forward to the band’s next release while approaching it with some trepidation lest it be more of the same and worth little of my time.

First things first, if you didn’t like this band before, “Nocturnal” won’t change your perspective, otherwise, I declare this album a success. There is a lot of variation to be found here, and as with this band’s past effort, every track is standout and offers something of value. Trevor has also added a new vocal variety (his vocal patterns are still rather uninventive, unfortunately), although his yapping-dog style of singing is at its most grating on “Nocturnal”.

The solos on this effort seem to have reverted to the uncertainty as witnessed on “Unhallowed”, and I have no fucken clue as to why. The skills have improved, but the two years between this and “Miasma” have made whoever covers the soloing play with less conviction. A shame really, especially considering this album has more soloing on it than any The Black Dahlia Murder album before it. Everything else is just as top notch as on past works, with many a triplet riff, dark, brooding melodeath music and fantastic drumming courtesy of new drummer Shannon Lewis – not an amazing drummer by a long stretch, but restrained where necessary, and otherwise competent.

You’d be correct in thinking that the fella who covered the artwork did a number of Dissection albums and Emperor’s “In the Nightside Eclipse” – pretty cool. I’ll finish with an anecdote in the hopes that it shall distract your attention from the brevity of this review. A big thank you to Eric W for more than a few laughs; it gets funnier the more times I read it.

“When I saw them (TBDM) live with King Diamond, Nile, & Behemoth (went for KD), their vocalist took off his shirt after the first song, and had huge man breasts. A lot of people were complaining, and I decided to step into action. I started a chant, “PUT YOUR SHIRT ON”, and after a minute the entire venue was chanting, and he looked like he was going to cry.”

“Anyways, don’t like them, at all.”

7 American melodeath bands that ain’t so bad out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Metal Blade
- Website: The Black Dahlia Murder MySpace
- Band
- Trevor Strnad
- Brian Eschbach: vocals
- John Kempainen: guitars
- Ryan Williams: bass
- Shannon Lucas: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Everything went black
- 02. What a horrible night to have a curse
- 03. Virally yours
- 04. I worship only what you bleed
- 05. Nocturnal
- 06. Deathmask divine
- 07. Of darkness spawned
- 08. Climactic degradation
- 09. To a breathless oblivion
- 10. Warborn