Band: The Black Dahlia Murder
Title: Ritual
Label: Metal Blade Records
Distribution: Rough Trade Benelux.
Release date: June 20th 2011
Review: CD

Actually I think Detroit’s The Black Dahlia Murder got better and better by each new recording, and somewhat more accessible as well. This goes for the new album, Ritual, too. No major changes, of course, because why changing a winning team. The band is on Metal Blade’s roster for more than a decade and so is this fifth full length, which has a total running time of forty five minutes.
Making abstraction of the same basics time after time, the band undergoes some natural progression by each studio-visit. And this time the album sounds the most refreshed one to date. I guess it has to do with the involvement of guitar player Ryan Knight, who wrote a big part of the songs (before it was Brian Eschbach taking care of it all alone), and in an inferior way, it might have to do with the addition of instruments like strings or piano (very modestly used, for sure).
Still the band’s brutal Death Metal sounds modern, with many tempo-breaks, blast beats and twisted hooks. The melodic, sometimes tremolo-based riffs and the furious solos are strongly supported by the most heavy rhythm section, and on top of it you got rather friendly twin guitar harmonies.
The technical and thrashing songs get lifted up as well by the excellent vocal efforts: deep and growling grunts and somewhat high-pitched screams.
For fans of: The Black Dahlia Murder!
(and the likes of: At The Gates, Carcass, Dissection, In Flames, Neaera)