Thy Art Is Murder talks Controversial Artwork, Preservation and International Fame

Western Sydney extreme metal mainstays Thy Art Is Murder made headlines in recent months, but this time it wasn’t for breaking an ARIA chart record. The original artwork for the band’s forthcoming third LPHoly Warhas been dubbed provocative and controversial.

”Marshy (Andy Marsh) and Sean (Delander)came up with this idea […] I think a lot of people are missing the fucking point because the child is wearing a suicide bomber jacket, that’s it.”

Frontman and vocalist CJ McMahon spoke toTMNduring the band’s European tour. While it’s clear he’s perturbed his fans aren’t looking deeply enough into the meaning behind the artwork, any press is good press.

“The picture signifies other things than a child suicide bomber but it kind of worked to our advantage. A little bit of extra marketing and advertising has gone in through people rushing in to think of what we’re doing.”



The artwork itself is a depiction of religion at its worst. That said, the band is no stranger to this realm of anti-theism; plenty of previous songs and albums are proof enough of that (re:The Adversary). “We’ve always sung about it, it’s something we all feel strongly about,” McMahon explains. However Holy War isn’t slicked with religious iconography, McMahon says there’s “only about two or three songs on our new album about that stuff.”

"Holy Warreally is the pinnacle of it. We do sing about a lot of other things, especially on this new record. There are some interesting subjects that we sing about.”

 The subject matter on the album is set to be very broad, with the band taking on new concepts that they haven’t touched on previous records – many of which will no doubt resonate with the band’s audience.

“One of my favourite songs on our new record is about the preservation of animal rights,” says McMahon, “and trying to stop animals becoming extinct which is happening very, very quickly in the world today.We as a race, are destroying the ocean and are spending trillions of dollars a year to get in a rocket and fucking fly to the moon and explore what the fuck’s going on out of our atmosphere, but we’re not putting even 5% of that money back into preserving our own resources […] we’ve already fucked this place beyond repair.”

The broad spectrum doesn’t end there though. A bonus track on the digi pack is about child preservation: “It’s basically a song about one guy walking the earth, finding and killing paedophiles.”The record also touches on 13th century Holland:“Religion has fucked all the Nordic countries back in the day." The range of the subject matter the album tackles is no doubt the largest the band have attempted.

While the band hope people their fansread into more than just the obvious message its cover is spreading,there are still going to be those who are offended by the artwork regardless; child suicide attacks and religious extremism in general are things that have been more widely covered in recent times with the rise of groups like ISIS. With this in mind, the bandwent ahead with the knowledge that much of the public, even those within the industry,including distributors and labels, may have an issue with it. “It’s something we feel very strongly about,” says McMahon. “We knew it was going to shock a lot of people, we knew what kind of message we were going to send to people.”

But this isn’t the first time Thy Art Is Murder has made mainstream headlines. The band’s previous recordHatesaw a peak of #35 on the ARIA Albums chart, setting a record at the time for the highest charting extreme metal band in Australia. More recently we’ve seen the chart success of their label mates The Amity Affliction (#1 withLet The Ocean Take Me)and In Hearts Wake (#2 withSkydancer).

Everything is lining up forHoly Warto be the band’s most successful album yet, and it seems Australia isn’t necessarily their biggest priority. “I don’t know if we’ll get #2 in Australia but we’ll destroy America, Europe and Canada with our rating overseas,” he enthuses. “I don’t think a large percentage of Australia gets what we’re doing. I think a lot of fans think we’re too heavy or maybe a little bit too full on for them, which is fine.”

Thy Art Is Murder’s international profile has ascended to new heights in recent years. More oft then not the band are overseas, spending the majority of each year abroad, touring their work along with other heavyweights of the genre. Their recent European tour is a testimony to their overwhelmingly large and growing fan base overseas; originally an Emmure headlining tour, the New York band pulled out and left Thy Art with the tough decision of either canning the tour after already spending a small fortune in prep, or organisingan entire tour just weeks out from the departing flight. “We spent 25 grand flying out crew over to Europe to do the fucking tour so once we found out the tour got cancelled, we thought ‘fuck it’.”

The band’s gamble payed off. Three weeks deep into the last-minute European tour and it’s going well with sold out dates in London.

“That shit would not float in Australia,” McMahon says sternly.



Holy War is out June 26via UNFD.