Ryan Knight - The Black Dahlia Murder 'Speaking The Guitar Language'

Soldiering on in the face of tragedy is a fact of life many of us will sadly be forced to tackle.

When The Black Dahlia Murder’s emblematic frontman and co-founder Trevor Strnad sadly passed away in 2022, his surviving bandmates found themselves at a crossroads. With a 20-year, nine-album legacy behind them - one could certainly argue that they are the most important American death metal band of this generation - fellow band visionary Brian Eschbach put aside his guitar and took over the vocalist role as a way to both honour their fallen comrade and march the band into the future.

Ahead of their brand new album Servitude - out September 27th! - Wall of Sound was fortunate enough to chat with the returning guitarist Ryan Knight, who re-enters the fold after a six-year absence. We talked all about how it was to work with both Eschbach and fellow shredder/producer Brandon Ellis, his material for the hotly-anticipated new record, their time in the studio, and much more.

Of course, the most obvious question is how Knight came to rejoin The Black Dahlia Murder; the opportunity not only made the most sense for the band but also worked out perfectly in the guitarist's personal life;

"So pretty much after Trevor (Strnad) passed, probably almost a month later, Brian (Eschbach) called me up and said the guys wanted to continue the band; but Brian would be jumping over to vocals, and he asked me if I wanted to rejoin. It was kind of one of these things where it was a good time for me to rejoin, the reason being, really, because me and my wife, at the time were living in Nashville, Tennessee, and we don't really have any family there. I'm originally from Georgia, so my family's probably six hours away, or something, but all my wife's family is from Michigan, where the band is from. So we had been thinking about moving to Michigan, and this was a few months before my son was born, just to have more family around. So when Brian kind of called and asked me if I would be interested in rejoining I was like 'Yeah, sure!'. I mean, we've been thinking about moving back up to Michigan. Anyway, I live, like, literally - I don't know where those kilometers - but I live four miles from (Eschbach). It's very close."

Ironically, Knight’s now fellow six-stringer Brandon Ellis also has a history in underrated tech-death group Arsis, each having a history of holding the co-lead guitarist role in non-sequential terms;

"If I can remember this correctly, I did my last tour with Arsis at the very end of 2008 and it was in Europe; it was around November or something, maybe around Christmas time. So I did my last tour with them, and Nick Cordle actually took my place, and then Nick ended up living leaving Arsis, and he was in Arch Enemy for a bit. Then, I think, after Nick left, Brandon joined. But I want to say that, there was a time too where Nick and Brandon were both in Arsis. Brandon came one guy after me; but I have known Brandon before even that. I've known Brandon for quite some time."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjKEHL9XJKE

With their history together, the two players were able to gel together extremely quickly, confidently covering similar and different ground;

"I would say me and Brandon, in some ways, I think we're pretty similar, but in a lot of ways, we're very different. And it's funny how sometimes on Servitude, I could see people not knowing who it is at times, and then there's times where I think it's pretty obvious; but yeah, we are pretty different players. We both really love Yngwie Malmsteen and we definitely both do totally love the Shrapnel Records-era stuff, hence why some of that vocabulary is going to be the same."

With Ellis taking on a bulk of the recording and production duties on Servitude, the studio experience was slightly different compared to the Georgian’s prior Black Dahlia Murder releases;

"In the past, for me, it's usually (producer) Mark (Lewis) tracking all the rhythm stuff, and Mark's great, but working with Brandon was really nice, just because we were at his house, so it was kind of like we almost had all the time in the world. I feel like Brandon just really knows - I mean, obviously, since he's in the band - his ears are really attuned to the band and I think everyone knows he's a phenomenal musician, so his ears, I think, are just really attuned to our best interest. I know that he speaks the guitar language and I feel like our ears want to hear the same things when it comes to bends or vibrato, and obviously he's great if I'm like, 'Man is this out of tune? Am I insane?'. So I just really trust him just really with everything; I just really think he just knows what the band should sound like. I tracked all my leads here at home, and obviously he did all his leads at his home, but everything else was done at his place, other than the drums. But I feel like, because Brandon’s also heard all the demos and stuff too, before the record, he came into it having heard everything like a million times. So if something sounded shitty or off, he was gonna pick it out pretty quick, you know, so I feel like that really helped too."

Despite Eschbach moving into the frontman role, he still contributed music for the new LP. When it came to tracking the parts, however, Eschbach was happy to take a step back and direct the two axe-men.

"He (Eschbach) wrote three songs, and originally we were like “Yeah, well, you know, Brian will play on the record”, but eventually Brian was just like 'I'm going to just be doing the vocals - it doesn't make sense if I’m not going to play (the songs) live', which was fine, too. So essentially me, and Brandon played his songs. And, of course, Brian was right behind us (in the studio) so we could ask like, 'Hey, how do you want this played? Do we need to pick this or slide into this?' - whatever it may be. So we played all the parts, which was a kind of a new, interesting thing; Brian wrote his songs, but me and Brandon played our separate parts for him. So he was almost kind of in the director's chair, if you will. Because there was definitely times where we're like, 'Hey, Brian, come here. Listen to this; should we play it like this, or like this?' And then, you know, he’d make the call, and then we would keep going."

The songwriting credits on Servitude show a shared load, with Knight bringing some of the effort’s most interesting and grooving moments;

"So ‘Mammoth's Hand’ was actually an old song - not that old, I think I wrote it over Covid, and it was just for writing songs for a project. It’s a pretty different song for The Black Dahlia Murder, but I showed it to Brian, and he liked it, so I was like, 'Okay, let's use it'. So that's one of them, as well as the songs, ‘Cursed Creator’ and ‘Asserting Dominion’, as well in that little acoustic track before it (‘An Intermission’)."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQIZtU6gkq4

When it comes to smashing out Melodic Death Metal gold, Knight admits it’s better not to overthink it - though it’s good to know to sequence your album once you’ve got the parts together;

"I think we always try to put some sort of epic song last. I don't think it's ever really, necessarily, thought out; I've been getting this question a lot - did you guys sit down and think about what you were going to write? No, we never do that, if we kind of just go for it. But anyway, to answer your question, the last track (‘Utopia Black’), we just always try to make that one kind of epic or try to have it be a song that just has some kind of grand sound to it. I think maybe our thought going into that is just like, you know, you want to start the album, hopefully with something that is really cool, that people like, and then hopefully you want to end it (the same) too."

A guitar but, the returning band member was happy to divulge the gear The Black Dahlia Murder used to record massive riffage and scorching lead parts

"For most of the rhythm guitar, actually, all the rhythm guitar we used one of Brandon's Signature Series Jackson's. I believe the pickup was one of Brandon's Signature Series pickups that he has now, but it was a non-potted pickup. So it had a ton of dynamics in it. The only downside was that it could be kind of noisy, so you had to really try to play really clean. But it had a that it sounded really great, and I think Brandon may have used that same guitar to track his leads. I used a PRS Custom 24, all stock model with PRS pickups. And for the amps, I think, for all the rhythms on we used an EVH; I think we used the 5153 stealth with EL34’s in it."

Touching on his very ‘un-metal’ choice in guitars, Knight explains that he wanted to have a break from the more cliched heavy music six-strings;

"I’ve been with them (PRS) for 10 years now, and I think at the time I kind of just wanted to try something new, and I was really attracted to the build quality. At this point, everybody knows that PRS are really nice guitars; they're just made well. And I think I was kind of attracted to that, and I had a couple of my really good friends were playing them, and to be quite honest, it was an adjustment, just because you come from from my Ibanez to a PRS. I think it was just a build quality and just the way they resonated; when you pick one up and you strum it, it sounds like a cannon or something. I didn't want to play a locking trim anymore, like a Floyd Rose, and at the time, I was kind of getting away from that, I guess, the quote, unquote ‘shred-style’ guitars; although you can really shred on each style guitar, but it was really just wanting to try something new. I had played PRS in the past, so I knew the whole deal. And, yeah, here I am still, 10 years later. The green one that I play a lot, I've had it for 10 years, and though it definitely has nicks and dings, I've never had to change any pots or any of the electronics on it. They're just really solid guitars."

https://www.instagram.com/p/C899q8rJVN2/

With a couple of spare minutes, as the chat goes deeper in the direction of guitars, with Knight dreaming out his signature model - someone get PRS Guitars on the phone and make this happen!

"I really like the (Mark) Tremonti model; I have it now. The only thing I would change on that guitar is I would add two more frets; I'd make it 24 fret. I may change the pickups and to have a model with like a Floyd Rose option; that would be really cool. What I would really like to see from them - this is like wishful thinking - but like the Tele they make now - the NF3 - I wish there was one of those that had 24 frets and at least some kind of trem on it; I would play that if that existed. I feel for the for The Black Dahlia gig, it just requires a little bit more; you can play that this stuff on a 22 fret guitar, but I had to modify some solos here and there. A lot of times I do need the 24 fret, you know? So that would be nice."

With Servitude dropping on the 27th of this month - our final golden question for all Australian Black Dahlia Murder fans is when we can see the band hitting our shores for their own headliner;

"I think it's in the plan, because we were there with Carcass this past April. I've heard that we are planning on coming back over on this record; we haven't hit Japan or anywhere else over in Asia. So I'm sure that when the time comes to come back over that way, we'll hit Australia."

Interview by Andrew Kapper. Twitter: @andrew_kapper

Pre-order Servitude here

The Black Dahlia Murder – Servitude tracklisting

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCFivg0a_co