The Black Dahlia Murder announce new album ‘Servitude’

June 13, 2024 James Weaver

THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER have announced a new album!

Titled Servitude, the upcoming album from the American death metal band is the follow-up to 2020’s Verminous, and is scheduled to be released in September this year, via Metal Blade Records.

“Before the tragedy, no one ever thought this band was going to exist without Trevor.” That’s THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER’s co-founder Brian Eschbach telling it like it is. With the tragic passing of the band’s frontman and co-founder Trevor Strnad in 2022, Eschbach, bassist Max Lavelle, drummer Alan Cassidy, and producer/guitarist Brandon Ellis were faced with a decision: Close the door on the band, or carry on in their fallen brother’s charismatic spirit?

“Everyone that’s in the band now is someone that Trevor and I searched for,” Eschbach says. “We spent so much time on the road together that everyone understands the mission statement. We don’t really need to talk about it. We just need to make great music and try to make people happy playing it.”

After a period of profound grief and deep soul-searching, Eschbach moved from guitar to vocals, setting aside his lifelong identity as a live guitarist for the survival of the band. Former THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER member Ryan Knight returned to the fold to take Eschbach’s place on guitar. The new lineup made their debut in the band’s hometown of Detroit in late October 2022 for a tribute show for Strnad.

The band acknowledge that some will be sceptical of an album without Trevor’s inimitable presence. “More than pressures or expectations from the fanbase, I feel their trust and support,” Ellis says. “We’ve always done what we do for them, and they’ve appreciated our consistency over the years. The global outcry following Trevor‘s passing has shown us how important the band’s music has been to so many people, and how important it is that we continue in his honor. Under all that weight, I think we all knew what needed to be done. We put in everything we had, and this is the album that felt right to make. I’m proud of it and proud of the five of us. You can never please everybody, but I know that this music will be a healing and positive force for those who embrace it!”

Alongside the announcement of the new album, THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER have released a new music video for a new song lifted from the upcoming album; Aftermath.

“We wanted that one to be heard first because it’s one of the faster songs on the album, if not the fastest,” Eschbach says. “We wanted that very aggressive BLACK DAHLIA melodic death metal feel coming right at you. Lyrically, it’s about a meteor that fucks up the whole planet, but there’s still people living. Kind of like The Walking Dead, but with no zombies — so you get right to how people deal with it. And by the end, they’re eating each other.”

Watch the official music video for Aftermath here:

Also, you can view both the track list and artwork for the upcoming new album below:

Track List:

1. Evening Ephemeral
2. Panic Hysteric
3. Aftermath
4. Cursed Creator
5. An Intermission
6. Asserting Dominion
7. Servitude
8. Mammoth’s Hand
9. Transcosmic Blueprint
10. Utopia Black