Nocturnal
Twenty years on, it is clear: with their third album The Black Dahlia Murder redrew the map of American melodic death metal — and set a benchmark they never quite reached again themselves.
2007 was not a good year to be playing melodic death metal. The genre had become a commodity: off-the-rack Gothenburg riffs, metalcore bands with side partings, and in the middle of it a band from Detroit accused of being exactly that. That The Black Dahlia Murder, of all people, gathered up everything still wild in this music on their third album is not something everyone saw coming. Twenty years on, "Nocturnal" is the benchmark.
It opens with a punch to the face. "Everything Went Black" needs three seconds to make clear that nobody here is negotiating compromises: Shannon Lucas, then fresh behind the kit, drives a tempo that leaves no air, and Trevor Strnad shrieks as if he is being skinned alive. This is precisely where he finds the voice that will make him unmistakable — the high screams cutting and almost black metal, the growls low enough to turn the contrast into a weapon.
What lifts this album above its contemporaries is the melody. Not the friendly In Flames variety, but the icy, mournful line Dissection once drew. "Deathmask Divine" layers choruses you could hum along to, were they not so bottomless. "What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse" is the earworm that still carries every setlist. "To A Breathless Oblivion" ventures furthest out — an almost melancholic piece showing just how much range this band had. And "Warborn" closes by gathering it all up one final time.
Brian Eschbach and John Kempainen — for whom this is the last record with the band — deliver solos that never end as finger acrobatics but extend the gloom. And the production, criticised at the time as a touch trigger-heavy, today simply sounds: huge. Ten songs, under forty minutes, not a single filler.
What can no longer be heard neutrally in 2026 is Strnad's voice. Since his death in 2022 a shadow lies over these recordings that was not part of them then — and which, bitter as it is, only deepens their force. When the band tours Europe in 2027 with "Two Decades Of Nocturnal", it will be no nostalgic rehash. It will be the celebration of an album that set the bar for an entire generation — and has never lowered it since.
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Strengths
- +Trevor Strnad's finest vocal performance — cutting, venomous, unmistakable
- +Melodies with a real abyss instead of friendly Gothenburg goods
- +Shannon Lucas' drumming: frantic and still inventive
- +Ten songs, under forty minutes, not an ounce of filler
- +Solos that extend the gloom rather than interrupt it
Weaknesses
- −Strnad's high screams remain an acquired taste — if you don't like them, there is no hiding place
- −The bass largely disappears in the mix
- −Anyone after stylistic surprises: this album does one thing, uncompromisingly
Verdict
The gold standard of American melodic death metal — uncompromisingly fast, bottomlessly melodic and carried by a vocal performance nobody has managed to copy since. Twenty years later, "Nocturnal" doesn't sound dated; it sounds untouchable.
Tracklist
- 01Everything Went Black3:17
- 02What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse3:50
- 03Virally Yours3:02
- 04I Worship Only What You Bleed1:59
- 05Nocturnal3:12
- 06Deathmask Divine3:37
- 07Of Darkness Spawned3:22
- 08Climactic Degradation2:39
- 09To A Breathless Oblivion4:57
- 10Warborn4:40