Thy Art Is Murder ascended the ranks of extreme metal’s top-tier bands with a meteoric underground rise as explosive as humankind’s seemingly inevitable descent into doom and death.
Two-time ARIA Music Awards nominees and tourmates with genre-titans like Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Kreator, Lamb Of God, and Killswitch Engage, THY ART IS MURDER offers a savage take on blackened death metal combined with a heady but accessible approach to social commentary.
Songs like “Reign of Darkness,” “Atonement,” “The Purest Strain of Hate,” and “Puppet Master” became anthems for outsiders, those who dare to challenge, provoke, and resist the dark world around them. They make dark, chaotic, nihilistic, heavy music with sharp smarts beneath its surface.
The band spent lockdown isolated even more than most. The group’s guitar players put down their instruments for the first time since they started, resulting in a type of rebirth.
“Sean and I didn’t even pick up our guitars for two years,” Marsh explains. “It was deliberate. The muscle memory… When we came back, it freed everything up. The hands went to different places than they were used to going. It was easier to get outside of the box of Thy Art Is Murder. We tried to explore new dimensions. It’s still within a tight paradigm, but we went to some new places.”
The result is Godlike, 2023’s sixth full-length entry in the band’s ever-expansive discography. Sonically, new depths and dynamics are explored without sacrificing an ounce of intensity or urgency. Songs like “Join Me in Armageddon,” “Destroyer of Dreams,” “Blood Throne,” “Keres,” and “Lesson in Pain” deliver sharp stabs, guttural descents, and groove with muscular athleticism and confidence.