Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: The Black Dahlia Murder

The purveyors of extreme metal chaos, Michigan's The Black Dahlia Murder, have been going strong now for years. Their last album, 2007's Nocturnal further expanded upon their sound. Live-Metal.net called it a "Satanic extreme metal riot, complete with gore-infested lyrics, black metal influence and just plain insanity." The band has stayed busy since the release with constant touring, headlining the 2008 Summer Slaughter tour, releasing their Majesty DVD, and recently, playing the Hot Topic Extreme Stage during the second annual Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. This comes as a precursor to their fourth album, Deflorate (Sept. 15, 2009), warming up live to sweaty metalheads during the hot U.S. summer.

After the Mayhem Fest, The Black Dahlia Murder heads out on tour with none other than Slipknot, which should make for an interesting combo.

At the Mayhem Fest's stop at Bristow, VA., the Live-Metal.net crew had the chance to hang with Black Dahlia guitarist Brian Eschbach. Brian talks about the tour, partying, and the world of The Black Dahlia Murder.

Live-Metal.net: Basically, how is the tour going so far? I guess we’re kind of winding down now. Are you gaining new fans each and every time out?

Brian Eschbach: I’m not sure. I know there’s some people that are seeing us for the first time and there’s some people that are hearing of us for the first time, really, outside of seeing the list of bands on this thing. That’s cool. This tour’s been really cool. It’s a really great vibe. We came into it knowing everyone on the Hot Topic Stage. We’d toured with all the other bands before. Actually, the only band on the side stages that we hadn’t toured with before was All That Remains and Shannon [Lucas], our drummer, was playing for them before. It’s cool coming into an environment where you know everyone. It’s this long and hectic of a day, and we all have to cooperate, work together to make sure it’s smooth. It’s just been really laid back. The food’s great.

Yeah, we’re actually gearing up to release Deflorate, which is gonna come out September 15 on Metal Blade Records.

I haven’t received the download for that yet on the site, on the podcast. It’s not on there yet. I haven’t heard it yet, in other words.

One song’s available. You can listen to it or stream it at Revolver’s Web site. I’m pretty sure we have it on our MySpace, too, by now. I’m not sure. That might not be legit if we did that. I know “exclusive” was a big part of it. So I’m gonna have to look into that after this.

I’ve obviously heard Nocturnal. That album’s just crazy. You’ve got the gore-infested lyrics, musically it’s all over the map and everything. How does the new album compare to that one? Is it more of the same?

Yeah. It’s more of our songs, really. What’s really fun about this one in particular is it’s Ryan Knight, our new lead guitarist’s first album with us, and he’s really stepped up that department of the band. He just knows tricks galore. It was really fun putting songs together with him ‘cause he’s got a lot of crazy, awesome, fresh ideas. It’s kind of a new experience to have another guitar player in the band actually participating in the writing process, thinking about it outside of practice and touring.

I wanted to ask you about lyrically, who are the main lyricists in the band?

Trevor [Strnad] writes all the lyrics.

Like I said, they’re gore-infested, all kinds of violence and things like that. At least it was on Nocturnal.

It’s a bunch of darker—

Yeah, yeah. They’re stories. English is great ‘cause you can find metaphors that weren’t necessarily placed there intentionally.

Majesty? It’s been out for a little bit.

They’re telling me stuff about it, man. It’s weird to have people come up to you and quote you to you.

Is it a lot of behind-the-scenes partying kind of thing, montage, with concerts and things like that?

Yeah. I don’t want to say it’s all partying, but we do end up drinking most days when we’re out on tour, to be perfectly honest with you. We shot some of the footage—very little of it, maybe like 5 percent he used our stuff. I guess it looked that bad. But Robbie Tassaro, who’s done like three music videos with us, he shot most of the stuff. He just comes out on tour for different periods here and there. We just end up goofing around and that’s what they ended up with.

Is there any particular show that’s either on the DVD or just in general that you were just blown away by or your best show that stands out to you? Not necessarily on Mayhem but just anywhere.

There’s really not any few that I can say are the most awesome ‘cause a couple months later you get surprised with some place that you weren’t expecting to have an awesome time at. I love playing every night, except for nights when shit’s fucked up, like my amp doesn’t work or I’ve been hassled all day on the phone by other powers in the world—you know how it is, family, friends and you’ve just been fighting with someone all day and you just can’t get in the right mindset to enjoy it. But we love doing this. We’re very lucky to be able to do this.

On this tour, after you’ve played and you’re ready to do some drinking and partying, is there another band that you go to like, “I want to hang out with those guys”?

Here’s the thing: Everyone’s pretty much doing the same thing. We’re talking eight bands on the side stage every day, and everyone’s doing the same thing. When the sun goes down, people get showered up, they eat their food and they start drinking. And after a while, someone’s got a PA out—it’s usually Trivium on this thing. They just set up this huge-ass PA and shit happens, man. All sorts of motherfuckers from all these bands are movin’ and groovin’. George “Corpsegrinder” of Cannibal Corpse and I have a secret dance move.

It’s secret, so I can’t really get into it. I think he wants me to keep it a secret. It’s nothing racy or any shit like that. George “Corpsegrinder” doesn’t really dance, guys.

We got 10 dates with Slipknot in the northern U.S. It’s gonna go from like Washington through Idaho and Montana , the Dakotas.

I’ve never been in Montana. I’ve only played in Boise, Idaho. It’s all right for the size town it is. You can’t expect too many kids to know about it out there.

They probably don’t get stuff like that as often as other places, so they probably enjoy it when it comes.

Yeah. I think they have a little more eclectic taste in those pockets ‘cause it’s like you go to see what you can.

Touring with a band like Slipknot—they’re heavy, they’re a metal band, they’re mainstream-oriented.

It’s gonna be interesting. There’s so many angles, from their label to publicity. They’re a—I don’t want to say corporate force, but yeah, kinda.

I don’t want to say they have bad tastes. I’m not saying that at all. But I think the majority of the Slipknot fans, Slipknot’s the heaviest thing they ever heard and then they find out about other bands. I’m not worried about getting booed off stage.

It’s almost like they’re one of those bands that’s kind of like a gateway, like you’re saying.

Yeah. There’s no way a band like us is gonna go in there and win over all the Slipknot fans and then we’re playing in the bowl every time we come around. That’s not gonna happen. But we’ll find some people that’ll hear us and then they’ll be like, “Oh, what’s this drum style? Oh, blast beats” and shit, and then they’re gonna find out about all these other bands. That’s what’s cool about it. I’m happy to be able to be part of that process, maybe.