The Black Dahlia Murder - Miasma - Review by Pharmer4

The Black Dahlia Murder - Miasma

Metal Blade definitely has a great cast of bands, and The Black Dahlia Murder is definitely at home amongst them. Their album Miasma is a great combination of accomplished musicianship, twisted creativity, and crisp production. The artwork of the album is certainly different for a death metal ban, with photos of Las Vegas/Hollywood-style cityscapes and neon signs throughout. Given that there seems to be a general theme covering the most lascivious goings on of human society, these photos of the seediest cities in the world would seem to fit quite well.

The skill of The Black Dahlia Murder is evident throughout the album, with precise rapid-fire drumming, deep droning bass, and almost demented guitars that change from chugging riffs to screeching solos and accents at just the right moment. Sometimes this gets a little repetitive, but it's not a huge sticking point. To top it all off, the vocal delivery of Trevor Strnad is really solid, both aurally and in the composition of the lyrics.

Firstly, the rhythm of the lyrics actually fit with the rhythm of the songs, so unlike some bands like As I Lay Dying, you don't get a jarring sensation with the flow of the lyrics, and it doesn't sound like they are being squashed or stretched out to fit with the track.

Secondly, the vocal delivery is very interesting, mainly covering a higher-pitched Manson-esque decrepit screech, occasionally devolving into a voice that sounds like Glen Benton on sedatives. Not a bad style at all for this kind of music.

Built For Sin

The album begins with an instrumental track entitled "Built For Sin" that immediately informs you (if you didn't know already) that The Black Dahlia Murder is a very technical band. The drumming never lets up with constant double-bass kicks. The bass and guitars create a droning riff with occasional flourishes in time with the snare drum. After close to two minutes, it segues into the next track.

I'm Charming

Musically "I'm Charming" is a more complex version of the riff from "Built For Sin". Thematically, it is about someone who has built their life with lies and can no longer identify in themselves who they really are. The lyrics are delivered like a one-sided conversation aimed at someone who trusts the singer (maybe even themselves), and warns how they've become "a human smoke that taints the air", and they will "take you down with me to degrees you'll never know". Basically, it is about someone who's life seems rosy on the outside, but it is falling apart on the inside, and when they self-destruct, they'll take everyone around them with them too.

Flies

Flies is the opposite of "I'm Charming", as it is about someone else living a life of lies; it is definitely aimed at a women with talk of cosmetics; someone living in the public eye who doesn't realise everyone is laughing at them. This seems very much to be someone like Paris Hilton, all show, no substance. Their life is all a facade, and even they don't know they are living an "internal suicide, flirting with a trigger's pull". As I said, the opposite of I'm Charming, composed as a warning to the one who's life will implode from all the fake shit, rather than being for those who will be taken down in the aftermath.

Statutory Ape

This really is a difficult track to interpret, but given the theme of the album, it seems to be about seeking the downfall of those who aren't original, those who "ape" others. It's hard to pin down, but there is definitely ill-will, with talk of sleeping in the arms of war, and gorillas maiming and suffocating. It's a hard one to pick, but an entertaining song nonetheless.

A vulgar Picture

From obscure to sickeningly straight forward, "A Vulgar Picture" tells the tale of a man who would go to appalling lengths to be with his one true love. Standard Death Metal fare then. The subject of the song digs up his bride-to-be from her grave, and after consummating her death, joins her after opening his own veins and spilling blood all over her casket. As close to a Death Metal love song as you can ever get.

The track ends with a sample of a woman saying "That was interesting, or that was disgusting. . . it's your call". Truer words never spoken.

Novelty Crosses

Novelty Crosses explores the themes of forbidden lust; lust for someone holy like a nun or something similar (maybe even oedipal) - the subject of lust is variously compared to a religious statue and referred to as both Eve and Mary.

It deals with the shame people are made to feel for their biological urges; "I'm being strangled by his statue" referring to the guilt religious groups thrust upon those who succumb to their normal desires.

Dave Goes To Hollywood

Sometimes when people move to Hollywood, they find fame and success. Some people don't, but get by leading a normal life. And then there are those who end up like this, doing anything to get by, no matter how degrading, and covering up all the pain and shit with drugs and alcohol.

Dave Goes To Hollywood tells the sordid tale of any person in Hollywood who ends up on the shit heap, seeing hundreds of faces but always alone. It's done in an obscure way so you really need to think about it, which makes any song that much more interesting.

The restraint in the song also increases it's appeal - Death Metal is know for it's explicit content, yet here it's lack of graphic detail makes it all the more intriguing, disturbing, and degrading.

Miscarriage

Miscarriage is about the facade people in the spotlight create to hide their private life from the masses ( ie "vultures with human eyes"). Eventually, this web of lies begins to encompass their lives, to that "the bottom of bottles no longer ease the pain."

I'm not sure where the name fits with this interpretation of the track, perhaps it refers to the life of those who are destroyed in the spotlight, how their life has been taken away and replaced by the endless need to be what everyone else expects of them.

Spite Suicide

This song represents a view i don't necessarily share, but I can see how some people can feel this way; it is from the point of view of a man who has found out that he has gotten someone pregnant, and she has had an abortion before he can come to terms with it.

The subject refers to the unborn foetus as both daughter and son, as it would be too early to differentiate, and laments how it has become trash for insects to eat, and how it clung to the sickle, as if trying to avoid its fate.

He wonders what colour it's eyes would have been, and whether he will dream of it as a child staring at him in judgment. As for the mother, he reserves vitriol and hatred, referring to her as a vampire and a demon who sends her children to the grave with a smile on her face.

A stark subject, but it does raise a point - what should happen if a pregnant woman want an abortion, but the father does not?

Miasma

Miasma is a track about disaffected youth who feel they had nothing to strive for when younger, and nothing to fight for now. Everything in life is now about the hedonistic existence, living to "fuck and swallow pills". It's all about how hollow life is, how we ar all dying each moment, and no one seems to notice.

Verdict

The lyrical delivery is the standout on this album, obviously production comes into it, but the way the delivery changes from skin-crawling screech to stomach-churning baritone is masterful. It adds accent to the lyrics, and makes the songs more interesting.

The musical skills of The Black Dahlia Murder are definitely first class, but the wall of guitars and bass, combined with the continuous rapid-fire drumming, does not leave much space for differentiation between tracks. The topics range from judgemental to disturbing, and I can find no fault with that. The lyrics are abstract enough that some or all of my interpretations could be completely wrong, but the experience is for the listener to decide, so if I'm wrong, I could give a fuck!