If one was to ask who the premiere modern death metal bands are, likelihood is that The Black Dahlia Murder’s name would be thrown about, and rightly so. The releases of Deflorate and 2011’s stunning effort Ritual saw them go from a stand out death metal act to one sat around the top of the ladder; with a technically proficient and vicious streak, yet being quite accessible at the same time. Latest album Everblack only further cements this.

In between releases did see a change in the ranks with bassist Ryan Williams and drummer Shannon Lucas going through the door, but the main creative core is still intact so the loss is not so catastrophic. It does see proceedings become a bit more fine tuned however. As great as Ritual was, it did appear quite chaotic and at times hard to follow, yet on Everblack there is much less of this and things just flow all that much easily. Songs are all the more straightforward and as a result catchier. Yet the band’s sense of dynamism is still in place, and the continued presence of Knight’s uniqueness and sheer talent on the guitar remains at the forefront.

Refusing to rest on their laurels after a consistently impressive and improving run of form, Everblack see’s TBDM just getting better and better with arguably their best and certainly most consistent release to date. If there was a manual on how to be a great death metal band with melody and pure power simultaneously, it should be written by these guys.

9/10

Chris Tippell

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