Band:	The Black Dahlia Murder
Album:	Ritual
Style:	Melodic death metal, Metalcore
Release date:	June 2011

01. A Shrine To Madness
02. Moonlight Equilibrium
03. On Stirring Seas Of Salted Blood
04. Conspiring With The Damned
05. The Window
06. Carbonized In Cruciform
07. Den Of The Picquerist
08. Malenchanments Of The Necrosphere
09. The Grave Robber's Work
10. The Raven
11. Great Burning Nullifier
12. Blood In The Ink

Deathcore Hybrid metalcore + melodic death metal - now there's a title that has a really negative stigma surrounding it amongst a large portion of the more discerning metal crowd. Now, normally, I'm against discarding an entire genre, but rather take my sweet time shitting on bands individually. However, considering The Black Dahlia Murder's strangle-hold on being probably the most popular band in the genre, I'm beginning to understand why people are afraid to approach deathcore metalcore + melodic death metal hybrids.

To be fair, these guys appear to be achieving exactly what they are setting out to do; create quasi-extreme music for people who don't normally enjoy extreme music. Admittedly, the first few leads shown in Ritual are actually pretty nifty. Much like eating mini-donuts, the first few are pretty damn good, shortly followed by the realization that you should find other means for sustenance. It seems almost like a compilation of half-assed aspects that are done better by other bands. The blistering extreme thrash moments make me want to listen to Skeletonwitch, the melodic leads make me want to listen to perhaps Arsis, and the "evil" sounding bits make me want to listen to Hannah Montana.

Terrible? Nah. To call Ritual a terrible album would be to say it left some kind of impression. Unremarkable. I like that word; feels comfortable using it on this album. Go eat an entire loaf of white bread with nothing on it, then you'll have an idea of what listening to this album is like. Yeah...it's not a shitty experience, just a pointless one.