The centre of Ghent looks like a Hollywood producer’s vision of a medieval town. At the heart of this Belgian city is a picture-postcard warren of cobbled streets, centuries-old architecture and breathtaking gothic churches, with two equally picturesque rivers adding to the fairytale quality of it all.
All it’s missing for the full 15th-century effect are armour-clad knights, mead-quaffing peasants and maybe the odd leper. Chinastraat is a long way from all that. Situated on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Ghent, this warehouse is one part music venue, one part horror movie set. Walking through its dark, dank corridors, the flickering lights and constant electrical hum makes it feel like you’re in a scene from some Saw sequel. Outside is a stinky, filthy reservoir.
“There’s a pretty freaky story about that reservoir,” says one of the venue’s staff nonchalantly as he walks us through the building. “A little while back some travellers came, and they drowned their babies in there and just took off.”
Whether that’s freaky or simply traumatising is up for debate, but it’s unlikely to faze the members of The Black Dahlia Murder either way. The US death metal crew are headlining Chinastraat later tonight, the penultimate show on their 30-date European tour. It’s a tour that many thought might never happen.
In May 2022, frontman Trevor Strnad died by suicide at the age of just 41. It was a huge blow to those who knew him and the wider metal community alike. The charismatic singer was a beloved presence within the scene, as passionate about metal in general as he was about his own band. In the wake of his passing, guitarist Brian Eschbach stepped forward to take his place on vocals. It was a logical move: Brian co-founded the band with Trevor in 2001. Guitarist Ryan Knight, who left the band in 2016, returned to fill Brian’s former role.
The Black Dahlia Murder’s new album, Servitude, is their 10th, and their first without their totemic former singer.
“When Trevor and I formed this band, we just wanted to make a death metal band that sounded like the stuff we loved,” says Brian, as we sit in the back lounge of the band’s bus outside the venue. “I don’t think either of us ever lost that.”
He lets out a sigh and pauses for what feels like forever. He looks like he’s struggling to get the words out. “Emotionally it’s weird sometimes,” he says, eventually and hesitantly. “Grief comes and goes. Trevor and I spent 20 years together making decisions that were always in the interest of keeping this band in contact with its audience, making music that pleases us and that also pleases them. I don’t know instinctually what else to do besides keeping this band going. I’m not programmed for anything else.”
You’d like to think that noted horror buff Trevor Strnad would have approved of the abattoir-like ambience of Chinastraat’s backstage passages. He’d certainly be the first to offer visiting journalists a beer from the fridge… which is precisely what bassist Max Lavelle and drummer Alan Cassidy do when we bump into them.
The pair are still on a high after playing the Reload Festival in Germany yesterday, appearing on the same bill as Korn. It’s two months since they headlined the Dogtooth Stage on the final night of this year’s Download festival, their first UK gig since Trevor’s death.
Max describes the latter as “pretty cool”. That’s underselling it a little. It was a glorious, emotionally charged return to the fray. When a spontaneous chant for Trevor went up, the band seemed visibly moved.
“During the first couple runs I would talk about it a little bit every night,” Brian says, on the bus. “Now I kind of thank the fans for continuing to support us. I know they know what’s up. Everyone knows it and feels it, we don’t have to necessarily talk about it every time. But if anyone ever wants to chant Trevor’s name, we’re going to be all about it.”
Like his bandmates, Brian is friendly and welcoming, offering us a shot of whiskey and the pick of the food from their rider. But it’s clear that he’s still not entirely at ease discussing certain moments from the last two years.
“We all went to his home the day after it happened,” he says quietly, when we ask about the aftermath of Trevor’s passing. “He was living in Georgia at the time, and we went down there. His family is scattered about and couldn’t get there in a timely fashion. We could, so we went there, packed up his things, got his car and sent everything up to storage in Michigan for the family to take care of when they could. We were just in shock.”
The decision to continue The Black Dahlia Murder seems to have been made purely from instinct. They were still hurting and confused by the loss of their friend, but unable to contemplate a life without the band. When the conversation did arise, everybody was onboard almost straight away.
“One phone call turned into five phone calls going back and forth,” says Brian. “We all agreed if we were going to do this, we needed Knight to come back. It’s the only way we wanted to do it, we didn’t want anyone new coming into the band. We called him up and he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ So, from the time the discussion started, we knew what we were doing pretty much by the end of that day.”
The Black Dahlia Murder played their first gig since the death of their friend and former singer on October 28, 2022, at a tribute at Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit. ‘Shoot Yourself Out Of A Cannon Day’ is how Brian wryly describes it. Aside from the emotional punch of stepping into Trevor’s shoes, he also faced the physical challenge.
“It took a good amount of practice. I had a lot to learn about breathing,” he recalls. The day of the concert is etched into his memory. “If you make a decision to do something at some point you have to do it,” he says. “On any given show day, I try to stay as busy as possible and then go to sleep as much as possible. There wasn’t a chance for a nap, and I don’t think I was gonna get that kind of calm that day. People that we knew and people that we didn’t know came to that show in Detroit from all over the world. It was pretty overwhelming.”
Even though he remembers the “camaraderie and the love and support being shared in that room”, Brian admits that he “didn’t feel conscious” during that first gig. Two years down the line, he’s performed nearly 100 shows as The Black Dahlia Murder’s frontman. While he’s mostly at ease in his new role, there are still moments that blindside him.
“We were at Dortmund Deathfest in Germany a couple of weeks back,” he says. “During the last song of our set, some guy right up front just holds up this thing that he printed, a Trevor memorial thing. And I just fucking shut down. I was not there. I was not doing anything on the mic for about a third of the song because I just lost it.”
Servitude puts any doubt about the validity of them continuing without Trevor to bed. It’s an album of characteristically crushing death metal, with Brian’s more acidic vocals bringing back some of the rough grit of their 2003 debut, Unhallowed, and its 2005 follow-up, Miasma.
“We knew that we had to do it,” Brian says of Servitude. “It’d been more than a good amount of time since [2020’s] Verminous came out. And making the choice to go on in the absence of Trevor was like, we kind of have to show everyone what we’re about. There was pressure to prove that, yes, we know what we’re doing.”
He describes the creation of Servitude as “surprisingly fun and not difficult… it didn’t feel like a gruelling, difficult process”, though he won’t be drawn on whether any of the lyrics are about Trevor. “I just started writing shit down, seeing what I thought was cool,” he says with a shrug.
The band need to get ready for their show soon, but there’s still time for Brian to thrust one more beer into our hands. Despite the upbeat mood, this run has unsurprisingly been tough for the band.
“There’s grief that’s just always going to be there,” he says. “You just do what you can to try to accept it.” What would Trevor have thought of the new album? Brian takes a deep breath and composes himself. “I think he’d have really loved it,” he replies, simply.
A couple of hours later, The Black Dahlia Murder rush out onto the Chinastraat stage. The 350-capacity venue isn’t quite sold out, but the band treat it like they’re playing an arena, charging around, banging their heads, shit-eating grins plastered across their faces.
Given everything they’ve been through in the last two-and-a-half years, it feels like a release of energy and emotion. Tonight, classics such as What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse and Everything Went Black still sound box-fresh and brutal, while newer songs Aftermath and Mammoth’s Hand fit in seamlessly.
Brian is far more confident as a frontman than he was even at Download, eyeballing everyone in the venue and picking up crowdsurfers. He doesn’t mention Trevor, though that’s not out of disrespect. “I hope people don’t think I’m being disrespectful by dialling it back onstage,” he told us earlier, adding that he doesn’t feel the need to do it at every show.
He shouldn’t worry. No words are needed this evening to feel the spirit of what his friend brought to The Black Dahlia Murder. They’re honouring him in the best way: by retaining the passion, energy and sense of fun that helped make the band who they are. What would Trevor Strnad have made of it? He’d have loved it.
Servitude is out now via Metal Blade.
