Ritual

With their fifth studio album, the Black Dahlia Murder return to working with producer Mark Lewis who lent his studio wizardry to the band’s previous album, 2009’s *Deflorate*. Opening song “A Shrine to Madness” begins with a moment of classical music before an explosion of tightly wound guitar riffs tries to keep up with rapid-fire drumming while Strnad screams and howls like a man possessed by an entire underworld of demons. In the aptly titled “On Stirring Seas of Salted Blood,” his pained guttural growls sound as if he’s about to upchuck his vital organs. The relentless rhythms that jackhammer away at “Window” nearly upstage Strnad’s schizophrenic duality — half of the song has him gurgling the genre’s requisite vocals while he performs the other half with high-pitched shrieks that come across like Linda Blair’s more harrowing moments in *The Exorcist*. Fans who found newcomer Ryan Knight’s guitar work impressive on *Deflorate*, are in for a treat here, especially in “The Raven.”

Rising above the predictable black din of contemporary death metal can be a formidable task, but Michigan-based melodic death rockers the Black Dahlia Murder manage to do just that on their fifth studio album, the relentless and rewarding Ritual.

That sound you heard on "Deflorate" was progression and it just got louder on "Ritual". The entrance of ex-ARSIS guitarist Ryan Knight into THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER camp for 2009's "Deflorate" has been paying big dividends for the Motor City death metal act, no more so than on "Ritual". Any knocks th...

A review of The Black Dahlia Murder - Ritual which is out on the 17th of June in Sweden, 20th in the rest of Europe and on the 21st in the USA from Metal Blade.

The Black Dahlia Murder - Ritual review: Ritual is an album that is great in its own right, but does not stand as tall as the band's other releases.