the aggression sessions

don't really know anymore how i got caught up buying this. liked the depression sessions split from 2016 with great songs/covers by thy art is murder and the acacia strain. i could live with the fit for an autopsy part, too.

with malevolence replacing tas this time, it's two bands i don't care for. plus the taim songs aren't even on par compared with their last contribution. might end up selling it again. nuclear blast. 2023.

thy art is murder - hate (purple/red merge re-press)

this particular variant was just too good looking to pass up. 'hate' is still a benchmark in the deathcore genre. 900 copies made. nuclear blast. 2012/2023.

thy art is murder - hate

almost a classic and finally available on vinyl again. years ago i had a chance to snag one of those olive/bone merge variants for what is now considered a steal. well, time was on my side eventually and here we are with this beauty of a re-press. 600 pressed on clear/yellow pinwheel vinyl. 2012/2021.

thy art is murder - human target

another new album from 2019. thy art is murder and their latest effort "human target" was one i really waited for. there is something about this band that really resonates with me. i am usually not the deathcore type but they have something that goes beyond, or maybe not and it is just damn well executed. whatever it is, the new record lives up to all my expectations.

the record is full of blast beats, chunky riffs, sinister melodies and that fantastic guttural voice by singer c.j. mcmahon. speaking of, i saw the guys live at wacken open air this year and to me they had the most energetic performance of the whole festival. Also because the vocalist got himself a wacken tattoo live on stage. what a guy, see for yourself.

nuclear blast europe offered a white vinyl edition for pre-order and although i like the aesthetics of that colour-way, i knew this wasn't going to cut it. usually the label gets a few copies of the u.s. version and so i waited. i checked regularly and as soon as they were up, i grabbed one. here we are with this beautiful splattered orange/white merge edition housed in a glossy gatefold cover out of 500 copies. nuclear blast. 2019.

thy art is murder - dear desolation

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.

the depression sessions

"the depression sessions" is a three-way split featuring thy art is murder, the acacia strain and fit for an autopsy. i am a fan of the first two, the acacia strain in particular and therefore was tempted to get this split 12". as all three bands would contribute only one new song and a cover song each, i was a bit split over the relevance of this output. two things convinced me eventually. number one was the song "they will know another" from thy art is murder. since "holy war", their latest album, this band knows how to combine finest tech death metal with wonderful, apocalyptic melodies and this song is just another proof.

reason number two was the two cover songs of taim and tas. tas graces us with their version of soundgarden's "black hole sun" and taim crafted rammstein's "du hast" into their very own sound. i have a personal connection with both songs. "black hole sun" was a video favourite of mine. the song and the video make for such a strong symbiosis and the visuals make the music even better. i got rammstein's record "sehnsucht" from 1997 as a gift back then and it was one of the first real full lengths i listened to. i knew every song by heart but their stuff didn't really age well with me.

all the more i was surprised as to how taim made this song so enjoyable to me. i love how these australians played with the tempo and song structure. it gives "du hast" a real unique touch plus it's always entertaining listening to non-native speakers trying to sing/scream in german, haha. tas's version of "black hole sun" is more in the vein of the original but still cool. fit for an autopsy's two songs are not really my cup of tea - i had to look up that they did a nine inch nails cover - but still this is quality and i can see why they share this split. 350 copies on clear with red splatter. nuclear blast. rise records. good fight entertainment. 2016.

thy art is murder - holy war

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.