THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER

People have been crowning bands as "the next AT THE GATES" almost since the day "Slaughter of the Soul" was released in 1995. Well, at the risk of shutting down the mini-industry that keeps Swedish thrash metal hopefuls striving for the goal, the heirs to that throne have finally been found — in the guise of a bunch of nerdy-looking reformed hardcore kids from suburban Michigan. Yeah, we're as surprised as you are.

"Miasma" is a fucking monster. THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER keep things simple, furious, and metal as all hell, throwing out gobs of busy, nimble-fingered riffing with an almost impossible ease. Drums are crashing and clattering at all times, shifting tempos out from under the riffs and employing plenty of blast beats and that "1-2-3, 1-2-3" AT THE GATES pattern. Vocalist Trevor Strnad has a venomous high vocal and a low death metal bellow which seem to be battling for control of his larynx throughout most of "Miasma", sometimes shifting in mid-line.

Bits of latter-day CARCASS influence pop up here and there (the mid-tempo section of "A Vulgar Picture", "Miscarriage"),threading poisonous guitar melodies amid the otherwise blown-out chaos. Elsewhere, as on "Novelty Crosses", it's all grinding beats and a neverending cascade of riffs, punctuated by impressive, emotive guitar solos and precision breaks. And while THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER don't employ clean vocals or other watered-down tricks, there's an accessibility to their songwriting, a simple hookiness that gives even their most brutal tracks a swing and a memorable verse-chorus-verse familiarity. Not to harp on the classic Earache Records connection too much, but these guys write songs the way CARCASS and NAPALM DEATH did when they turned extreme music on its ear — they know you don't have to sacrifice brutality to write something with personality to it.

Come to think of it, that's what made "Slaughter of the Soul" (and, for that matter, "Reign In Blood") such an instant classic. Nothing that hadn't been done before, just fused with an inescapable urgency, stripped of all excess, and painstakingly crafted so that every note sparks with frantic energy. "Miasma" is the sound of a band confidently moving up to world-class status, thirty-three minutes of intelligent, lethal hellfueled metal precision-tooled to tear your head off.