Nightbringers

Nightbringers has been hyped up since 2016, and all throughout 2017 Black Dahlia have been hailing this fresh new slab of melodeath as their best yet. On the Summer Slaughter tour, which also happened to be their 10 year tour for Nocturnal (their breakthrough album and my favorite of theirs), they debut their then-newest title-track in a live setting and it of course kick major ass. That song, however, proved to be the odd one out among the other 8 tracks. Before the release, Metal Injection's review gave the album a perfect 10/10, and Black Dahlia made a video for Metalsucks where they have random pedestrians in NYC react to the new songs. So Nightbringers is being made out as a huge freakin' deal, so of course everyone was stoked.

And I can't say I was disappointed. I've never expected Black Dahlia to let me down, and Nightbringers has gone above and beyond my already high expectations, proving itself to be more than worthy of its hype. While definitely not anything very different stylistically from previous Black Dahlia albums, Nightbringers shows a great progression from a band already over a decade old and leading the modern melodeath scene.

Nightbringers is certainly the fastest-paced Black Dahlia album yet, in terms of both song tempo and length. Clocking in at 34 minutes with merely 9 tracks, it's their 2nd shortest album yet*, longer only than Miasma, but that is in no way a bad thing. The album's overall flow hits you like a speeding truck with a sheer brutality that even Black Dahlia hadn't achieved before. Every song hits nearly or over 200 bpm, except for the title-track which focuses on groovy rhythm that might remind one of "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse" (from Nocturnal). In many ways, this album almost seems to be both a tribute to and an improving take on Nocturnal, as many of the songs sounds similar, albeit with an improved technical ability an sense of songwriting. In addition to the former comparison, I found "Matriarch" to be very similar to "Deathmask Divine", and on the closing track "The Lonely Deceased", I could hear a bit of "Warborn" creeping in.

(*Deflorate was also 34 minutes, but that had 10 tracks.)

The speed goes hand in hand with the incredible melodic/technical guitarwork of Brian Eschbach. My favorites of his solos were previously those on Ritual (ironically, the more mellow and slower-paced Black Dahlia album), but Nightbringers has me sold - the solos on the title track and "Kings of the Nightworld" were just beautiful, and the whole span of guitar riffs and leads were catchy, tasteful, and original. This added complexity in the riffs could also be credited to their newest member, rhythm guitarist Brandon Ellis.

For drummer Alan Cassidy, this is his third album with Black Dahlia, and his performance on Nightbringers wins him the 'most improved' award, as here he lets loose with a flurry of insane double bass and fills, holding nothing back. His rhythmic sense on the title-track is excellent, as this is possibly the slowest and grooviest song he's done yet with Black Dahlia. Also performing albums tres with Black Dahlia is bassist Max Levelle, who takes up the album's heaviness as his prime directive.

And who could ever forget our beloved Trevor Strnad, a man who is possibly a fucking banshee due to his always enjoyable, ever-intense high screams and powerful growls. Lyrically, he's writing less of the super-sickening stuff from Everblack and writing stuff a little more surreal, or fantasy-oriented like you heard on Ritual and Abysmal.

Now, is this the best Black Dahlia album? No, it's not. There's not a huge variety in song structure or melody like the kind that made Nocturnal so amazing, or the moments of atmosphere and serenity on Ritual. This album focuses mainly on being Black Dahlia's craziest, heaviest album to date with very little attention to different flavors within the music. This however, is a minor drag-down that can be overlooked, and Nighrbinger works perfectly for what Black Dahlia attempted to achieve.

An automatic must-have for fans, and an essential for 2017 releases.