Tune Talk: the dark flavorings of Thy Art Is Murder
April 13, 2015
For this week’s tune talk I’d like to talk about one of my favorite bands Thy Art Is Murder. The crew of Thy Art Is Murder is just your average metal band, except they completely blow their competition in the genre out of the water. The subgenre of metal they are classified by is Deathcore. These guys are from Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia. Seeing as how they are from Blacktown, it kind of makes you assume that that’s the reason for their dark musical style.
Formed 9 years ago in 2006, the group has juggled a variety of band members to date, and there are currently just four members. So first of all, there is their wicked vocalist, Chris “CJ” McMahon. His gutturals are always like a murder scene (meaning he kills it). He mostly sticks to the low, monstrously brutal, growls. Although, he has also proved he can hit the high, dastardly shrieks. Lee Stanton, the drummer, has been with the band from the very beginning. He is most definitely qualified to play the double bass pedals; it’s like his very feet were formed for the pedals. Andy Marsh is their lead guitarist, and he’s the newest to the band. Sean Delander has also been in the band since it formed; however he’s switched from rhythm guitar to bass, then back to rhythm guitar.
Almost all of the metal community is hyped for the release of Holy War and so am I.
Fortunately, the group just announced a new album to be released June 26 of this year for Europe and Australia. Unfortunately, the album won’t be available to North America until the June 30. It’s going to be called Holy War. Almost all of the metal community is hyped for the release of this album and so am I.
Besides this new album, they have two previous albums: Hate (2012), and The Adversary (2010). Even before that, they had released an EP and a demo. Infinite Death (2008) and This Hole Isn’t Deep Enough for the Twelve of You (2007), are the titles given to the EP and demo respectively.
Though their original vocalist Brendan Van Ryn doesn’t perform for them anymore, I do believe CJ is a better fit. Brendan’s vocals aren’t all that great on the demo and EP, but they are decent. Eventually, he was removed because apparently he couldn’t sing anymore.
On their two albums, they have some great hits like “Reign of Darkness”, “Soldiers of Immortality”, “The Purest Strain of Hate”, and “Dead Sun.” I strongly recommend that you listen to “Soldiers of Immortality.” Thy Art Is Murder made a video for it and while I don’t think the video is all that great, the song is so brutal, with the volume full blast you should be asking people to repeat themselves awhile after you hear it.
