The Black Dahlia Murder has proven, despite tragedy, to be an unstoppable force. Formed in Oak Park, MI, in 2001, the melodic death unit has spent two decades working their collective ass off in the near-relentless cycle of drop-killer- album/tour-hard-and-long, earning the love and respect of the metal community. The Black Dahlia Murder’s most recent full-length, Verminous, was released on April 17, 2020, via Metal Blade Records. Without compromising one iota of heaviness, the record stands among the band’s most dynamic, rousing, and emotional releases to date. Louder Sound crowned Verminous, “absolutely excellent,” while Blabbermouth wrote, “This is a deeper and smarter realization of the Michigan crew’s tried and tested formula, and one blessed with several of the finest songs they have ever written... File next to Nocturnal and Ritual as an unquestionable career peak.” Unfortunately, in May 2022 the band were dealt a crushing blow with the suicide of larger-than-life vocalist - and co- founder - Trevor Strnad at the age of 41, those close to him believing the mental health problems he had long dealt with were behind him at this juncture. Understandably, the members were left reeling by this, and spent many days racked with grief and wondering if this meant the band was over. But having put so many years of work and love into the band no one was willing to give up on it, with the decision made for guitarist - and founding member - Brian Eschbach to step into the vacated vocalist position with former guitarist Ryan Knight returning to take his spot, alongside guitarist Brandon Ellis, drummer Alan Cassidy and bassist Max Lavelle, who have all racked up many years with The Black Dahlia Murder. The Black Dahlia Murder took to the stage with the reformed lineup consisting of remaining and returning members of the band playing a hometown memorial show for Trevor Strnad at Detroit’s Saint Andrew’s Hall on Oct. 28, 2022. In April of 2023, the band headlined Decibel Magazine’s Beer & Metal Fest in Philly, which kicked off the start of the band’s North America Verminous Remnant Tour that featured support from Terror, Frozen Soul, Fuming Mouth, and Phobophilic and marked the band’s final tour promoting the album Verminous. The Black Dahlia Murder has a final string of one-off performances this September including stops at Virginia’s Blue Ridge Rock Fest and Worcester, Mass’ New England Metal & Hardcore Fest before they take some time off of the road to focus on writing and recording their 10th full-length studio album.

After the dust settles and the apocalypse runs its course, art will still persist in the wake of insanity. Society may crumble, but music endures and even thrives. The Acacia Strain document this deconstruction from the front row. The metal institution—Vincent Bennett [vocals], Kevin Boutot [drums], Devin Shidaker [guitar], Griffin Landa [bass], and Tom “The Hammer” Smith, Jr. [guitar]—survey humanity’s fate with seasick grooves, thrash precision, doom vulnerability, and vocal convulsions in 2020 throughout a series of five digital and physical two-song seven-inches for Rise Records.  Unveiled in three-week increments, the music and the rollout itself adhere to a calculated vision.  “The whole concept is reality breaking down around us,” explains Vincent. “We’ve done our time on earth, broken through the boundaries of what reality actually is, and we’re now witnessing our collective descent into madness. Lyrically and sonically, everything reflects that. You’re getting the vision piece by piece. The whole theme is a slow dive. There’s no evidence to suggest we’re aren’t actually in a living hell. The things happening around us could be out of a comic book or a movie. The idea is, ‘This can’t be real’. Maybe something happened. Maybe we’re all dead and we don’t even know it. Maybe we’re just living in some augmented reality hellscape of actual planet earth.” Founded in 2001, such ponderousness always crept between the cracks of the band’s menacing maelstrom of metal and hardcore. As such, they engendered diehard fandom within a cult audience and put up unprecedented numbers for an extreme act. The 2010 opus Wormwood spawned standouts “Beast” [3.8 million Spotify streams] and “The Hills Have Eyes” [1.4 million Spotify streams]. Meanwhile, 2014’s Coma Witch staked out a spot in the Top 35 of the Billboard Top 200. In 2017, Gravebloom soared to the Top 5 of the Billboard US Independent Albums Chart and yielded “Worthless,” which exceeded 1.7 million Spotify streams to date. Along the way, they toured with the likes of Architects UK, Hatebreed, and Crowbar in addition to selling out countless headline gigs.  Capping off 2019, they surprised fans everywhere with the seven-song conceptual EP, It Comes In Waves. Not only did it tally 1 million total streams in less than a month, but it engendered some of the best reviews of the group’s career. In a 9-out-of-10 star review, Metal Injection claimed, “It’s 30 minutes of doom, death metal, atmosphere, and storytelling that is hands down the best thing they’ve ever done,” and Decibel dubbed it, “the most interesting and varied record of The Acacia Strain’s nearly-twenty-year career.” With It Comes In Waves as a launchpad, they ramped up this momentum in 2020. “We fully experimented on It Comes In Waves,” Vincent continues. “It made us grow musically. When we got back in the studio, we didn’t follow a typical formula. We integrated the sound of It Comes In Waves into what we normally would’ve done.” Throughout September 2019, The Acacia Strain recorded the seven-inches at Griffin’s studio alongside producer Randy LeBoeuf [Kublai Khan, Left Behind] in Des Moines, IA. Even though they tracked drums at the same spot for It Comes In Waves, it marked the first time they recorded as a full band in Iowa and worked with Randy. Additionally, they expanded the soundscapes with wooden frog and other “weird percussion instruments.”  As a whole, they also perfected their patented approach. “We were able to write emotional doom songs,” states Vincent. “We’re trying to evolve, and we hope people evolve with us.” They introduced this chapter with the seven-inch D in February. “Feed A Pigeon Breed A Rat” slips from an ominous ticking into a crushing chug as the vocalist screams, “It feels like hell.” Meanwhile, the accompanying “Seeing God” [feat. Aaron Heard of Jesus Piece & Nothing] teeters between a gnashing riff and guttural growls. “These two tracks bridge the gap,” he goes on. “‘Feed A Pigeon Breed A Rat’ is about how certain parts of society are just ignorant to the norm. Sometimes, you have to follow the rules in order to survive though. ‘Seeing God’ is the beginning of the explanation of what’s to come. It’s a style of death metal we’ve wanted to do for a long time. We’ve also wanted to showcase guest vocalists, and Aaron killed it.” With D out and E on the way, these seven-inches ultimately form a statement for The Acacia Strain. “I want people to know we’re still here,” Vincent leaves off. “2021 will be 20 years of The Acacia Strain. We’re still making music, growing, doing new things, and encourage others to do the same.  We want everyone to be more creative and aware of the way they do things. It’s art after all. There’s more out there than what’s in front of our faces. I’ve been doing this since I was 19. The band is my life; I’m going to keep pushing.”