THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER
Capitol Theatre - Perth, Australia
June 18th 2015
The Black Dahlia Murder have been hitting Australia a few times in recent years, most recently with Soundwave Festival but it's always good to see the band in a more intimate setting and as headliners where we get the full experience of what this band is capable of live. As we found out in Perth during their current Australian tour, the band were pretty spot on delivering a metal show for the masses.
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Local supports included death metal bands Earth Rot and Iconoclast who warmed the crowd up with some heavy stuff. But it was Malignant Monster who really shined as main support act with their brutal brand of extreme metal. Having only recently caught them at the King Parrot show a couple of weeks ago, it was great to see the band in a slightly bigger venue and the size certaintly didn't affect the band in any way at all. Certaintly one of the heaviest acts I have come across, they give the headliners a run for their money when it comes to pure heaviness and hearing tracks off their "Yours In Murder" album, it would make a lot of bands slightly intimidated. The punters who were maybe not as familiar with the band warmed up to them fairly quickly and the regular fans showed their appreciation as much as possible. Frontman Cain Cressall works the crowd like a pro while drummer Louis Rando is an absolute monster behind the kit. If you have not heard this band yet and love metal in it's most nastiest form possible, do yourself a favor and check them out.
The headliners that are The Black Dahlia Murder came on not long after and got straight into business. Performing tracks from their back catalogue including their last release "Everblack", opener "
In Hell Is Where She Waits for Me" is a fantastic thrashy song that is pretty relentless from start to finish. Singer Trevor Strnad looked extremely happy to be in Perth performing in front of a decent sized crowd, lapping up the energy thrown at him and riling up the crowd as much as possible. It's always good to see a frontman not giving in to metal cliches by putting on a certain act, smiles and accolades were the theme of the night and in direct contrast to what is seriously heavy music.
The setlist focused on the later albums with the occasional throwback to older material like "Elder Misanthropy" but tracks from albums like "Nocturnal" and "Ritual" were definite highlights and show how far the band have progressed over the years. Soundwise, the drums was what came out really prominent, hitting you like a punch in the stomach. It's that driving force that make the show that much better as the band pummelled their way through a speedy set.
3 encore songs at the end of the night and the show was done and dusted. It was a fantastic performance by the now metal veterans and what is really evident after witnessing all this is that The Black Dahlia Murder are truly a live band more than anything. The band are finishing their tour of Australia over east so to those on the fence about seeing them live, expect nothing less than a great metal show!
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Review by Andrew "Schizodeluxe" Massie
Photos by Tammie Molotov - Molotov Enterprises And Photography