THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER’S NOCTURNAL: A TRUE TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF GREAT GUITAR DUOS
Wednesday, September 19th, 2007 at 1:53pm by Axl Rosenberg
What the fuck am I supposed to say about the latest release from The Black Dahlia Murder? Like all BDM albums, Nocturnal is chock full of melodic death metal that takes more than a few tricks from the Heartwork and Slaughter of the Soul playbooks; if that sounds appealing to you, it’s hard for me to imagine that you wouldn’t enjoy this album, because BDM do what they do pretty well. Vocalist Trevor Strnad (how the fuck do you pronounce that dude’s name?) slip slides between a black metal yelp and a death metal growl, and new drummer Shannon Lucas (late of All That Remains – and, really, who isn’t?) is just as good as Pierre Langlois and Zach Gibson and any of the other dudes who’ve hit the skins for this band (I do wish they hadn’t lost Kevin Talley to the inferior Daath, but c’est la vie). At this point I imagine everyone knows this band and knows how they feel about them; Nocturnal probably won’t do much to change anyone’s opinion.
But I do think that special attention needs to be paid to guitarists Brian Eschbach and John Kempainen. Eschbach’s searing solos have the clenched-fist tight structure of a great story, with actual peaks and valleys in place of mindless shredding, while Kempainen compliments him with parts that, if they were to be played note-for-note by an orchestra, would make awesome scores for a horror film. On “Everything Went Black,” you can actually hear Eschbach and Kempainen’s fingers gliding along the fretboard, like the best work by Jerry Cantrell and Slash; and their elegiac, angry-bumblebees-unleashed chorus for “Deathmask Devine” elevates Strnad’s otherwise typical gore-schlock lyrics to a genuine sucker punch of raw emotion. It is nothing short of beautiful – and that’s not something you can say about a lot of death metal. Eschbach and Kempainen’s performances alone justify whatever you pay for Nocturnal, and we should all sit up and take note.
(four out of five horns)
-AR
Man, Axl, that’s a mighty fine post. Fuckin’ refreshing to read someone writing well abut something they actually like.
Nicely done..i’m stoked to hear this. Hope the solo’s are as badass as ya say!
Damn, I need this album. I love TBDM.
“…their elegiac, angry-bumblebees-unleashed chorus for “Deathmask Devine” elevates Strnad’s otherwise typical gore-schlock lyrics to a genuine sucker punch of raw emotion. It is nothing short of beautiful…”
I noticed this too, and I couldnt have said it better myself man. I love the work they did in Nocturnal.
Great review by the way.
BDM kicks ass.
BDM is good no matter what and this new cd is prolly there best which i would give 10.
the guitaring is so fucking sick and tight i wish i could play half as good and the vocals, i think makes all happen, the way the vocals go in nocturnal that high pitch pig squeal it sounds like is the simply breathe taking and warborn the “underwater effect” or w.e is fucking insane aswell.
keep on fucking rockin dudes
I can’t hear the bass on this album well (fuck picking). However, the drummer needs more mention than just as good as the other drummers. Shannon Lucas’ writing is extremely well-thought and sick as fuck. He can blast like hell and has the most complex cymbal application I’ve heard in any metal band. Not to mention his single-bass grooves are catchy as fuck, and his control of all limbs and coordination is incredible. This is easily one of the best death metal albums ever produced, in my opinion.
[...] big fans of The Black Dahlia Murder’s latest, Nocturnal (read our review here), and if the comments and e-mails we’ve been getting from all of y’all are any [...]
hellyeah,
you wont believe it, but the album is the only one in my car since they published it. i love their solos, i love the new drum sound, i love trevors lyrics…. its fantastic!
i thought of a bdm-cover band ;)
greets
goran
what an awesome review, this album rules almost as much as the band itself, i probably listen to the whole thing once a day and have been doing so ..or got leaked on here ha ha. Only thing is that I was geared up for a great year with the two albums from my then two favourite bands: Nocturnal and ‘Two:Poverty’ from Demiricous but sadly only one of my fav bands remain, TBDM. Demiricous, on the other hand, seem to have changed to some form of Hatebreed cover band. So, I ask you, good fans of TBDM; what other bands would I like considering i love TBDM. They seem to be the only band i really enjoy listening to at the moment.
suckkkkkk….??
is metal…??
[...] guitar solos (which I assume Eschbach will now play in at least some capacity.). In fact, I’ve written a love letter to this guitar duo in the [...]