Following up on their album Miasma, Detroit's own The Black Dahlia Murder has managed to take put out another album very much worth listening to. Beginning the album, a full dose of 'kick-your-face' is served via the opening two tracks "Everything Went Black" and "What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse." The raw feeling of both songs brings feelings of carnage and industrial pain and suffering. Moving steadily along, "Virally Yours" is, in a clever way, virally yours. The song breaks bricks and causes walls to fall.
Checkpoint: "Worship Only When You Bleed" - A delightful song that shatters your head like a baseball to a living room window. Probably my second favorite song on the album and really something that you should hear whether or not you buy the album.
Followed closely by the title track "Nocturnal" any listener with a decent sense of hearing can understand why this song is the title track: It kills babies then serves them to the baby's mothers. The constant stream of metal that looms is outrageous and leaves you with withdrawals. The end. It's awesome. "Deathmask Divine" was a very similar yet new sounding song from this band given its almost harmonic chorus that leads into a f***ing heavy growl and headbanging bridge. This song is the near-ballad that completes this album leaving no places for physical vulnerabilities.
Then you hit "Of Darkness Spawned." This song has a very almost organized chaos sound to it in that it jumps from riff to riff and sound to sound in an almost careless fashion but still manages to sound very well put together. Does that make sense to you? If not, get a hold of this album and listen. You'll get it. And without skipping a beat, more blast beats. "Climactic Degradation" hurts your head for a moment before forcing you to swallow a big pill called 'f***ing metal' and you begin to grasp more and more of how amazing this album truly is.
Checkpoint: "To A Breathless Oblivion" - Just like Sonic The Hedgehog, you're always glad when you hit that second checkpoint because you know two things: 1) You're near the end of a f***ing awesome level and 2) The level can only get better from here. This song really, really gives you that: total, and complete reassurance that this album is amazing.
Finally, the end of the album hits. "Warborn" takes you back to a time of deep seeded hate and rage. I'm talking Incredible Hulk style hate and rage. "Warborn" hits you in your most vulnerable places causing you to spew liquid uranium and iron from your stomach. Throughout, the metal spews from your stomach and you can do only one thing: smile. It's that. Effing. Good. (Don't forget the end of the song with the laser-fire, gun-fire, and sword clanging... it's way bad ass)
So yea, I like Nocturnal. Could you tell? Probably. But all of that aside, this album is seriously worth the listen, hell, maybe even the buy! So go and get it you crazy kids and be glad good ol' me was there to tell ya how good it was.