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THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER :
MIASMA

For those not "in the know", this Detroit Michigan band takes it's name from the unsolved 1947 Los Angeles murder case of Elizabeth Short, which came to be known as the Black Dahlia Murder. The particulars of said murder are brutal, nightmarish, and utterly horrific, and well, so is the music forged by this band, so I guess the name fits. At first I feared these guys were just gonna be another Metalcore band, (shutter) and that wading through their new CD was gonna be just an utterly painful experience. Well, thankfully this ain't Metalcore, and it ain't too painful at all. Well, I guess you could call it painful, ...but in a good ol' fashioned Heavy Metal way! So, if they aren't really Metalcore, what are they? I hear you asking. Well, if pressed I'd have to say thrashy Melodic Death-Metal, or you could just simplify it and call them part of the NWOAHM, which steals a-plenty from the Scandinavian Melodic Death camp anyway. Comparisons could be made to a host of bands such as "The Agony Scene", "Lamb Of God", "At The Gates", "In Flames", etc. Basically, you have a variant of Death-Metal that's not too over the top. The vocals from Trevor Strnad range from deep growls to a high-pitched scream / rasp, and there are lots o' quick-as-shit guitar solos flying about, courtesy of John Kempainen and Brian Eschbach. The rest of the band by the way, is Dave Lock on bass, and newly added drummer Zach Gibson. The disc itself barely manages to clock in at 33 minutes, and boy does that fly by fast. There is no doubt that this young band is talented, energized, and pissed off, but blind fury and technical ability do not alone make an album great. The problem found on "Miasma", is that all the songs tend to sound alike, and blend together in a frenzied blur, which leads to them being forgettable on an individual level. We need more tempo changes here, ...something to mix things up a bit, and give each track their own identity. So while Miasma is a scathing sonic blast, and more than enjoyable enough to bang your head to now, I question its staying power, or "legs" if you will. Without having a "breakout" song or two, I fear that in the not too distant future, that Miasma will find its way to the dark, dusty nether reaches of my CD shelf. Rarely to be seen again. Fore more info, you can find the band's funky web site at theblackdahliamurder.com.
RATING = 6.5 Melodic Death-Metal (Released 2005)

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