Thy Art Is Murder – “Holy War” [Album Review]

If you’ve ever seen Aussie death metal wrecking machine Thy Art Is Murder live, you’ll know that frontman CJ likes to play the clown with his onstage banter. However, when it comes down to business, the Aussie outfit are, quite simply, fucking inhuman. Holy War is their eagerly-awaited new album and, if you’re expecting anything other than bone-breaking, brain-splattering rage, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

Holy War is a massive album for the Australian brutalists who, over the course of their career, have built themselves up a fearsome reputation. Unsurprisingly then, Holy War, sees the band step up their unrelenting sledgehammer delivery and take it to the next level. Ferocious from the get-go, their intentions couldn’t be any more clearer if they wrapped them around a brick and stoved your head in with it.

Flawless in its delivery, the likes of “Light Bearer” and “Emptiness” are executed with pinpoint accuracy from the shredding riffs to the unholy drumming of Lee Stanton, who pins the sound together with a blistering performance. Topping the whole thing of though is frontman CJ who, as mentioned, does have a backup career as a stand-up comedian if this all goes tits up, delivers his sermons with the howls of a man in need of an exorcism.

Holy War is a modern death metal masterpiece. Yes, they may attract the scene kids but, fuck me, the brutality and sheer ferocity with which these Aussies batter through this aural assault shows that they’re very much more than just another popular scene death metal band and are quite capable of knocking the major players of the death metal scene off their thrones.

Track Listing:

01. Absolute Genocide
02. Light Bearer
03. Holy War
04. Coffin Dragger
05. Fur And Claw
06. Deliver Us To Evil
07. Emptiness
08. Violent Reckoning
09. Child Of Sorrow
10. Naked And Cold

Run Time: 39:57
Release Date: June 26, 2015

Check out the album ‘Holy War’ here.