50 Best Hard Rock & Heavy Metal Albums Of 2017

Like any great metal band, The Black Dahlia Murder is a group that can rarely be pigeonholed into one subgenre of heavy music. Their anarchic, frantic tunes take cues from a great many corners of the rock landscape, primarily death metal, black metal, melo-death, hardcore and thrash, crafting punchy tracks with harmonic leads and intense rhythms.

The Michigan-based quintet’s newest record, Nightbringers, is definitely no exception to this rule. Providing a half-hour of pummelling extremity, the disc was a hit immediately, fans and newcomers alike swooning especially over the guitars of Brian Eschbach and Brandon Ellis.

And the dynamic duo undoubtedly deserve huge amounts of credit, somehow taking the ceaselessly quick tunes that The Black Dahlia Murder have been able to conjure up and give them a melodic slant, opening track “Widowmaker” arguably benefitting from this the most.

The blast beats of Alan Cassidy are similarly worthy of huge praise: it doesn’t take long for a listener to realise that his sheer speed and expertise are the backbone of Nightbringers, driving its raw brutality with an exceptional foundation.

Outside of the unforgivably awful Six Feet Under album, 2017 has been a pretty sweet year for Metal Blade Records, with both Nightbringers and label founder Brian Slagel’s fascinating book For the Sake of Heaviness being jewels in their crown. Each are more than worthy of your hard-earned cash and provide an excellent insight into the beautiful thing that is heavy metal.