I have to preface this review by admitting that until now, I had never listened to a whole album by The Black Dahlia Murder. I know… where have I been, right? Well the buzz in the scene had me believing they were just another cloned metalcore band, and being a more traditional metal fan I had no interest in them whatsoever. Well damn, I’ve been missing out!

The Black Dahlia Murder are not a metalcore band. As far as I can tell there is no hardcore influence on Deflorate at all. Mostly the band is playing full tilt and displaying upper-tier technical chops. A lot of the riffing is inspired by Swedish melodic death metal, and in many ways TBDM can be likened to a modern incarnation of At The Gates on speed. Not that the tempos are all that much higher than those the Swedes were playing at, but most of the beats are blasts instead of thrash runs, creating even more frantic, relentlessness energy.

Trevor Strnad’s vocals stand out more than the average growls because he’s utilizing mostly high screams. He also sporadically goes low for effect and the contrast works well. However, it could be argued that Strnad occasionally goes overboard with the quantity of vocal parts and could let some of the riffs speak for themselves.

Deflorate goes by in a flash and there are no throwaway tracks. The production style suits the band and the songs very well. There are multiple flashy solos and a few grooves to break the pace here and there, but all in all, the accelerated-melodic-death-metal tag applies to every song. If that’s something that appeals to you, don’t let the lengthy band name or the silly haircuts scare you off, this album rips.

3.5/5