Ritual

Ritual is The Black Dahlia Murder's fifth album, on which they tied sharp melodic death to black-metal chill and heightened their tension to the extreme. Built on themes of the occult and ritual, with each song loosely bound under a "ritual" subtitle, it is a highly cohesive work. The last album to feature bassist Bart Williams and drummer Shannon Lucas, it tightly constructs all twelve songs under the production of Mark Lewis and Jason Suecof. It reached No. 31 on the US Billboard 200 — the band's highest position at the time. "Moonlight Equilibrium," which got a video, is a signature song with memorable hooks and furious drive. From the dramatic opening of "A Shrine to Madness" to the ferocity of "Carbonized in Cruciform" and the closer "Blood in the Ink," dense songs continue. Frontman Trevor Strnad called this "the most focused Black Dahlia Murder strike," and true to his words, the band's aesthetic and aggression mesh ideally. It is a record boasting some of the finest completion in their catalog.