The Black Dahlia Murder

Not quite as interesting as their cool name may suggest, Detroit's Black Dahlia Murder nonetheless manage to do a good job of melodic thrash/death metal on their debut. The main thing separating this band from the hordes of other bands doing this kind of thing is a sense of real emotion propelling this beast along, mainly due to the lyrics, which are slightly more down to earth than most metal bands. The band has a few different vocal styles happening here, which wisely adds a great deal of variety. And yes, they shred just fine, dishing out the melodic twin leads and memorable licks like they're straight outta Sweden, but by album's midway point, it's hard to not fight off the sensation that this album has already been recorded many, many times over the past ten years.