thy art is murder is one of those tech death metal bands that walk around with a deathcore label. beside the look of some band members there are no core elements in their sound at all. of course, there are breakdowns on this record but suffocation has breakdowns in their songs too and nobody would go as far as calling the new york death metal institution a deathcore band. anyway, whatever you want to call the sound of thy art is murder, the adjective "phenomenal" should always precede the genre description.
"dear desolation" is the fourth full length of this australian monster and the second for nuclear blast records. after the departure of vocalist cj mcmahon in december 2015 and his return in early 2017 the band released split lp and the song on that split promised great deeds. the new album has become an utterly dark and aggressive slab of technical death metal. there isn't too much change to "holy war", which is (still) good in my book. the guys have an unique feeling for the right mixture of groove, fast tech death assaults and apocalyptic melodies.
check out their impressive wall of sound with "the son of misery". nuclear blast came up with numerous vinyl editions. four american, three european and two australian versions are floating around. nuclear blast had two euro versions and one u.s., the latter of the three just looked lovely on merge vinyl. the artwork by german artist elrian kantor, who also worked for testament, hatebreed or crowbar, is a breathtaking oil on canvas piece. so a great package all around. 800 copies made. nuclear blast. 2017.
