One of the hottest young acts to rise out of the American metal community is without a doubt The Black Dahlia Murder. Detroit's very own metal behemoth made an instantaneous impact on the heavy music landscape, exploding like a grenade in 2002 with their aggressive debut, "A Cold-Blooded Epitaph". Now residing under the illustrious Metal Blade umbrella, this quintet has set their scope on world domination. "Unhallowed" escalates the horror with scintillating death metal intensity, bringing such legends as Dissection, At The Gates and Carcass to mind while injecting the formula with their own youthful vision.

The title track is a chilling interlude that opens (and subsequently closes) the album, as vocalist Trevor Strnad recites from a book on cannibalism, and this sets a precedent that the group are all too eager to expand upon. The lyrical content is rife with soliloquies concerning the living dead, satanic rituals and Lovecraftian ghouls, keeping the band firmly entrenched in the horrors so often dealt with in extreme music. Vocally this album alternates from savage, disembodied growls to throaty screams more akin to metalcore, and this pairing makes for varying octaves of heaviness that work quite effectively. "The Blackest Incarnation" is the album's most triumphant cut, elaborating on the group's thrash technique and pummeling one's eardrums with all-encompassing percussion and excruciating layered vocals.

Much like Darkest Hour, the Gothenburg sound is instilled in The Black Dahlia Murder's dual guitar assault, yet musically this is a very traditional death metal release, ushering forth a plenitude of blast beats and soaring melodic solos. What does stand out as a welcome abnormality is how concise and focused this album sounds, clocking in at under 40 minutes. Death metal is a genre that tends to indulge on it's lyrical terror and punishing skill, yet the band opt for a barrage of high-octane metal which keeps the album from sagging underneath it's own weight. As the effort progresses the band do extend their songs to lap at and around the 5 minute mark, yet overall this direct attack is highly beneficial for the group. This is a metallic juggernaut of noise straight from the bowels of hell, never giving in to the listeners pleas for mercy, and instead tearing at one's throat with an insatiable blood-thirst. Though it never attempts to reach beyond the boundaries of death metal and revolutionize the genre, "Unhallowed" presents a plethora of spectacular gems for the listener to feast upon, and those who listen unprepared will be left whimpering in abject fear.