Artist Spotlight: The Black Dahlia Murder
By: George Archibald
This year’s Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio is hosting many bands from all over the spectrum of metal and rock. One band that will be making waves this year is The Black Dahlia Murder. These Michigan natives have been churning out horror themed metal masterpieces for close to eighteen years. The band is famous for intricate riffs, heavy drumming, stand-alone vocals, and having a reputation for their wild antics onstage and off stage.
The Black Dahlia Murder are known for their many iconic singles from The Castlevania inspired ‘What A Horrible Night to Have a Curse’, to ‘Everything Went Black’, to even the most recent ‘Kings of the Nightworld’. The band has made many iconic songs using the Gothenburg death metal style and adding an American twist to them. In 2016 the band added guitarist Brandon Ellis of Arsis to its roster. Ellis brings a new level of technicality to the band’s already noteworthy style of writing, which can be heard throughout their latest album Nightbringers.
The Black Dahlia Murder is a band that seems to never rest, as they constantly have been touring nonstop. The band recently finished up touring supporting their 10th year anniversary of their Nocturnal album release, as well as following it up with their latest cd Nightbringers being played in its entirety live. Currently, The Black Dahlia Murder is out on the road for their 2019 European tour with Ingested, and Virvium, before heading back to the states to begin touring with Meshuggah. The band also has a few festivals inline for 2019, with Chicago’s Open Air Festival, as well as Sonic Temple Festival.
Vocalist Trevor Strnad is known for his wealth of metal knowledge, being a fan of many underground and independent metal bands. He is a well-known metal columnist when he is not performing with his band, writing articles for Metalinjection.com. Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel has called Strand, The Encyclopedia Britannica of metal, having collected factoids on many obscure and unknown metal bands from around the world.
Be sure to catch The Black Dahlia Murder as they hit a town near you. The Black Dahlia plays on Saturday May 21st on The Sonic Temple Festival.
