FORMER MEMBERS OF THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER SET GRAVES ABLAZE

For some reason I thought John Kempainen was one of those “I hate touring” dudes, and that said hatred of fart boxes and no pay was one of the key reasons behind his split with The Black Dahlia Murder. But I guess I thought wrong, because Metal Injection tells us that Kempainen is teaming with original BDM drummer Cory Grady to form a new band, Graves Ablaze. They don’t have a vocalist yet (or a bassist or rhythm guitarist), but there’s an instrumental demo streaming here.

Kempainen is obviously a really talented guy and I was sad to see him leave BDM – his solos were one of my favorite parts of that band. That being said, Ryan Knight (ex-Arsis) has obviously turned out to be a more than able replacement, and I think Deflorate is probably BDM’s best album yet. And this Graves Ablaze demo doesn’t knock my socks off. It’s not bad – it’s just not jizz-inducing or whatever.

What does that say about their future? Very little. Maybe the time just wasn’t right yet for them to post a demo – maybe they need to wait ’til they’re further along in their evolutionary process. For now, I’m just glad that Kempainen is out there trying to make new metal…

-AR