The Black Dahlia Murder - Verminous

Key Facts

Country: 🇺🇸

Genre: Death Metal

Release Date: 4th February 2020

Record Label(s): Metal Blade Records

Album Release Date: 17th April 2020

Band Members:

Trevor Strnad – lead vocals 

Brian Eschbach – rhythm guitar, backing vocals 

Max Lavelle – bass 

Alan Cassidy – drums 

Brandon Ellis – lead guitar, backing vocals 

The Black Dahlia  Murder - Verminous

Review
Rating (out of 5🤘): 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

Hailing from Michigan, the band named after the infamous 1947 unsolved murder of Elizabeth Short,  are back with a crushing and beastly new single Verminous! Firstly a non-musical note, one thing I like about The Black Dahlia Murder (TBDM from here on out), I've always like the dark, single colour vibrancy of their album/single covers, most notably 2007's Nocturnal, 2013's Everblack and 2017's Nightbringers and I really like the green shade for this era of the band. Visually, it helps me distinguish them from the rest of the death metal album covers in my Spotify library as well as being aesthetically pleasing, I digress. This raw and aggressive track is sure to awaken your brain mush with electrolytes and then scramble the fuck out of it all over again!

Musically, the dungeon dripping introduction triggers dark and dingy imagery in my mind, something plague ridden and medieval, so the overall atmosphere of the song is set up extremely well. My initial impression is it reminds me a lot of a Nightbringers and Into The Everblack hybrid with the slower doom style tempo of the riff and drums before exploding into the death metal extravaganza of speed. The best thing about TBDM's music for me is they don't shy away from the more melodic riff writing in death metal, as I imagine that introducing these guys to someone who has never heard of them (apparently those people exist, which is mind blowing I know), they'd assume its the standard chug fest and gutturals because of the band's name and it's context. However, they would be pleasantly surprised at the versatility that these guys have, and it is definitely on show in Verminous. This one single alone has hyped me up so much that I want the album right now. Nightbringers was an absolute beast of an album, but I have a feeling that this one will be a beast ten times the size. I love how forbidding the whole song sounds, it makes me feel like imminent annihilation is upon me in the next three minutes. Trevor's vocals are sounding phenomenal on this single too, I've always thought there was a bit of a black metal influence in there as they're a fair bit higher than most death metal vocalists, despite that, the lows are evil as hell! Overall, the song is a well worked melodic, death metal riff mastery that enables you to simulate your impending demise but also makes you want to disrespect your surroundings in a one man/woman bedroom mosh!

The production is also spectacular, TBDM's production has always been on point and professional without losing that gritty edge but Verminous is the best I've heard from them so far. Everything comes at you like a cornered hyena with a thirst for blood yet remains super clear and sharp. The guitar tones cut through like buzzsaws but you can hear every intricacy and subtlety in Brian and Brandon's playing, and in the more rhythmic sections the tones are chunky and weighty. It's also great to hear a bass tone that isn't an overly down tuned distorted mess (don't get me wrong there is a place and a time for that), the tone is ballsy and has a lot of weight in the low end that bolsters everything. The drums have all the right amount of snaps and clicks from the bass drums and snare, whilst the cymbals cut through the mix with devastating efficiency. Overall, it's a really well mixed track, if the rest of the album is like this, to put it bluntly, we are not worthy!

I very much welcome the return of TBDM and hopefully I'll get to see them live sometime soon. Having seen them support the legendary Cannibal Corpse a few years back they definitely know how to put on a show! In the meantime, check out Verminous now!