i like me some tech death massacre from time to time. mostly bands of that modern wave of technical death metal. stuff like whitechapel or misery index. considering my affinity for that type of music, i was aware of that band called thy art is murder. i did hear some stuff of their 2012 album 'hate' but it didn't really grab me and so i never set out to get a physical copy.
when nuclear blast announced the new record 'holy war' earlier on this year i was curious as to what the new stuff might sound like. it was one of the occasional checks i do for alot of different bands with new or re-pressed records, simply out of the paranoia i could miss a great band/album. i assume a lot of collectors can relate. i listened to 'light bearer' on youtube.
boy, what i heard was pretty everything i like about this style of metal. fast, heavy and so angry. good shit! so i decided to pre-order that baby from nuclear blast europe. fortunately they had some copies of the u.s. version in stock and i thankfully took one. now with the whole record in front of me, it can live up to everything 'light bearer' promised. dark and furious stuff that reminds me of a more to-the-point version of job for cowboy.
while their u.s. friends fail to keep the listener entranced in a long term manner, these australian deathers deliver pure dynamite. the record also reminds me of another great australian tech death album called 'avarice of man' by now defunct the red shore. does anyone remember that record? it was a cracker from start to finish and so is 'holy war'.
'holy war' was pressed on black/pink merge and black/red merge for australia and on my blue/white merge for the u.s. market. the u.s. version was pressed by czech pressing plant xvinylx.com. they recently did great colour configurations for a389 (100 demons' 'in the eyes of the lord' re-press) and burning world rec. (bongripper's 'hate ashbury'). this one right here looks stunning as well. hope to get more colour vinyl of them in the future. nb europe comes up with a silver and a blue version which will be released in september. so don't be late! nuclear blast. 2015.