Photos By: Phil Reed

The Black Dahlia Murder play within the genres of metalcore, melodic death metal and deathcore – Whatever that means! All I know is that I was stoked to see one of the heaviest bands in the world rock the intimate stage at The Roxy on Sunset. After moshing my way through opening acts, Obscura, Augury and Hatesphere, I was more than ready to see the headliners.

Almost on cue, the curtain rose for the final time to reveal the evening’s main attraction — The Black Dahlia Murder. Having rocked the same room for free two months earlier, the five-piece band returned to a hero’s welcome as they opened their headlining set with the song “Funeral Thirst.”

Vocalist Trevor Strnad alternated between deep, throaty “death metal growls,” and high-pitched shrieking that damn near melted my orange ear plug, and as he paced back and forth across the front of the stage, screaming like an insane banshee, the rest of the band erupted into metalocalypse of monstrous proportions. Throughout the next hour, The Black Dahlia Murder played a hellfire fierce set of metal that spanned their entire catalog.

Some highlights were “Everything Went Black,” “Closed Casket Requiem,” and “What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse.” – Some may say it’s hard to differentiate one song from the next, but I disagree, as the double bass heavy songs like “Miasma” are seemingly worlds apart from guitar-driven rockers like “Statutory Ape.” Although, Trevor doesn’t sing as sweetly as what they play on the radio nowadays, his stage presence is nothing to mess with, not to mention his lyrics are dark enough to scare the daylights out of any non-metal head.

Overall, I have to say that The Black Dahlia Murder is a band that any real metal fan should see live at least once – this band’s intense stage presence, loud-as-fuck guitars, and ear-splitting vocals satisfy the killer instinct one develops living in Los Angeles.