Rob cuaght up with The Black Dahlia Murder at the Bone Crusher Fest tour for a quick chat about how the band came together, what they have planned for the future and much more.

Hello and thank you for taking time to do this interview!

Your band is named after the unsolved and gruesome murder of Elizabeth Short, what made you choose such a topic to name your band after?
I think it was more, just the fact, that it hadn’t been taken as a band name, Trevor saw it one day, just browsing the internet one day, just thought it would be a cool name, there wasn’t too much thought put into it, and couldn’t believe no one had taken it! To come up with a cool name is the hardest thing!

Who would you say your main musical influences are?
A lot of European bands, a lot of death metal, also with some American influences, mostly Swedish death metal stuff like that!
You have been going for ten years now what would you say you say your biggest achievement as a band has been so far?
Having consistency on our records, selling more and more with each one, keeping momentum going, going all around the world, seeing places that not a lot of other bands get to see and being successful.

You have been signed to Metal Blade Records since 2003, how have they been treating you for all this time?
It’s been awesome, they've been great to us, they push our records really hard and support us as much as they can, they’ve been a really good label, they don’t tell you to-do this or do that, they trust us to do the music part, and it’s been a great thing with them for sure.

Your latest album ‘Deflorate’ was released back in September are you happy with how it has gone down with both your fans and the press?
Yeah I think people like it, were happy with it as a band, were happy with the production and the songs, it seems to be getting a good response from the fans and that’s all we can ask for really.

What would you say your favourite song from the album to listen to and play live and why?
I think my favourite track, is throne of lunacy, it’s one of the songs that Ryan our new guitarist wrote, its short and has a lot of catchy riffs in, it’s a heavy song. To play live is the Last track I will return, because its epic and the fans seem to like it.

You are currently headlining the Bonecrusher Fest Tour, how have the shows been so far and what’s it been like touring with so many talented bands?
It’s been awesome, we like all the bands were out with as people and as bands, which makes it really fun, it’s weird, we haven’t done a tour package with this many bands before, I think it’s something that never normally happens, it’s been really cool, we’ve made friends with the bands we didn’t know and were friends with some of the bands already, it’s a fun tour for sure.

You have quite a busy touring schedule ahead of you, are you looking forward to certain shows more than others?
Well the next tour were on, is with hatesphere, were bringing them over to the US, it’s gonna be fun.

Can we expect to see you back in the UK in the summer for some of the festivals?
We’ll probably be back in the late summer, to-do some festivals that we missed last year.

You have gone through a lot of line up changes, are you fully happy with the current line up of the band?
I think, although I’m not an original member, I think the current line up is the best the band has ever sounded, the most professional and we get along really well which is important, everyone is on the same page with the music.

One random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a Zebra or a Giraffe which one would you be and why?
I guess a zebra, I can’t really say why, I guess there quicker!

Thanks for your time do you have a message for your fans reading this?
Keep coming to the shows, it’s what it’s all about, without you guys we couldn’t do anything.

Interview By Robert Lawrence