The Black Dahlia Murder Cast A Death Metal Spell Over Bristol
Bristol has had the great fortune of hosting a staggering number of multi-talented musical acts throughout the last year and it seems 2016 will not be any different.
Just outside the doors of The Fleece music venue, stands a swarm that to the standard pedestrian would be branded as ‘alternative’. Luckily there is no such classification on this bitter Saturday evening between these music enthusiasts as each one embraces the love they share for this particular genre. To them, there is simply one common ground tonight and that is their unwavering loyalty to The Black Dahlia Murder and the Abysmal European tour.
The welsh act known as Venom Prison stepped up to the stage, delivering genre-related handfuls of blast beats, gratuitous guitar chugs and throat shredding vocals which were forcefully fed to their audience but were regrettably muted by the quite noticeable empty spaces between songs which may have acted as a way for the musicians to keep in time with one another. With the exception of the breaks however, the band delivered a well-practiced set which was not altered by the lack of stage space or inadequacy of their sound technician.
Up next were the French five-piece Benighted, whose technical issues while preparing admittedly gave birth to a few whispers, but were abruptly silenced by what could only be described as Hell incarnate. Shrieks and pig squeals hauntingly echoed over the blast beat stampede that came charging through with a light-show of epileptic proportions.
Mr Truchan proved himself to be an eccentric vocalist in his hand movements, relentless head banging and strong stage charisma, hypnotizing his audience and demanding they scream along to “Let the blood spill, between my broken teeth”, informing them that it was “time to get fucking crazy”. A successful set which was granted a big round of applause and a fair amount of whooping as they made their way off stage.
The eardrums began to ache but the night was still young as the headliners of tonight’s show made their presence known. Their silhouettes clambering onto stage were accompanied by the orchestral backing track of sinister violins which lead straight into their game-changing opening track, “Reciept”.
Trevor’s elegance as a front man is nothing short of a sweat drenched ballet as he casts death metal-induced spells over the crowd, robbing them of any concept for their own well being and forcing them to throw massive shapes around (and sometimes into) the four black support beams, while through the air soared crowd surfers, devil’s horns and even Mr Strnad’s glasses at one point.
Between songs, their charismatic guitarist Brian Eschbach would take the time to talk to the crowd, thanking the welsh community present for all of their cultural gifts, to casually trying to work out what day of the week it was. Thrashing through a huge back catalog of their most recent work to the most popular tracks and everything else in between, they managed to cover material from all seven studio albums with no lull of energy present.
Ending their adrenaline-jacked night on “I will return”, it was crystal clear that the songs title and post-show ambiance left fingers firmly crossed that it would not be long before their next adventure to the ‘Birthplace of America’.
