Holy War
| Holy War | ||||
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| Thy Art Is Murder studio album | ||||
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Publication |
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admission |
2014 |
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| Label (s) | UNFD , Nuclear Blast | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
10 + 1 |
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running time |
38 min 38 s / 41 min 1 s |
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Guest musicians:
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Will Putney , Ted Jensen (Mastering) |
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Studio (s) |
Graphic Nature Audio , Belleville , New Jersey |
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Holy War is the third studio album by the Australian death metal - band Thy Art Is Murder that in the June 26, 2015 Australia over UNFD and Europe via Nuclear Blast was released. It was published on June 29 in the United Kingdom and the day after in the United States .
The album contains ten or eleven pieces with a total playing time of 38 minutes and 38 seconds or 41 minutes and one second. Holy War rose to number 7 in the domestic album charts and reached international chart listings for the first time in Germany and the United States , where the album reached number 70 and 82 respectively.
The original album cover sparked controversy that forced the band to change the cover as musicians feared a boycott of distributors. It is also the last full-fledged album on which singer Chris McMahon can be heard.
background
The song material was produced by the group during several concert tours in 2014 in a holiday home in Central Coast , New South Wales . A few weeks before the recordings began, the musicians moved into a studio to work on further material. Four weeks before production began, the group had written about half of the album. For the production of the album, Sean Delander switched back to the rhythm guitar while Kevin Butler recorded the electric bass tracks. Will Putney was the producer.
On March 30, 2015 it was officially announced that an album would be released in late June. On April 10, 2015, the album cover and track list were revealed. Two weeks later the originally planned cover was presented, which was changed due to pressure from their Australian label UNFD , which feared a boycott by the distribution partners. However, this artwork was retained in the insert booklet of the album.
On May 29, 2015, a music video for Light Bearer was released , in which the production company Ambitious Films was involved. Four weeks later, the day the album was released in the UK on June 29th, the music video for Holy War premiered , which was controversial. A lyric video for Violent Reckoning was also released. Holy War was released on June 29, 2015 in Europe , Australia and New Zealand . On June 29, the album was released in the United Kingdom and a day later in the United States .
Music video for Holy War
On June 29, 2015 Thy Art Is Murder released their music video for Holy War , the eponymous track on the album. It has been described as one of the most brutal videos an artist from Australia has ever published, and it caused great public anger. This video shows, among other things, an allusion to the Islamic State . A seemingly real decapitation of a person by an IS terrorist is shown. According to Andy Marsh, the video is supposed to be provocative and question the whole idea about God . The band wants to show that the video should show that belief in a god is manipulative and that religion itself is a negative force in the world. It was criticized that the only religious conflict takes place through Islamist backwoodsmen, while other wars are based purely on an economic-political basis.
Track list
| # | title | length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Absolute genocide | 4:25 |
| 2. | Light bearer | 3:55 |
| 3. | Holy War | 4:00 |
| 4th | Coffin Dragger (feat. Winston McCall ) | 2:55 |
| 5. | Fur and Claw | 4:16 |
| 6th | Deliver Us to Evil | 3:06 |
| 7th | Emptiness | 4:03 |
| 8th. | Violent Reckoning | 2:55 |
| 9. | Child of Sorrow | 3:33 |
| 10. | Naked and Cold | 5:30 |
| 11. | Vengeance | 2:23 |
Thy Art Is Murder deal with anti-Christian or completely anti-religious topics in their texts . However, the musicians also work with topics such as war , animal welfare and, contrary to earlier works, child abuse and politics are also taken up in some songs on Holy War .
Cover
The album cover originally selected shows a little boy with an explosives belt . It was officially unveiled on April 24, 2015. The boy was supposed to represent the innocence of the children who were abused as suicide bombers in their holy wars for the respective religion .
"Here it is [..], a child for every religion that has indoctrinated the young and disadvantaged, and sent them off to war and bloody death without cause or reason."
However, this motive sparked controversy, so that the band was forced to defuse the cover or to completely redesign it, as both the musicians and their label Nuclear Blast feared a boycott of the distribution partners. For the digital and CD versions of the album, a defused version of the original cover was chosen, in which the child's face was hidden by a hood, while the first record motif is still used as the front cover for the record version.
success
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Holy War entered the domestic album charts at number 7 and for the first time reached international chart listings in Germany and the United States , where the album entered at number 70 and 82 respectively. It could stay in the charts for a week at a time.
It was nominated for an ARIA Award in the Best Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Album category in 2015 . But it was defeated against the label mates Northlane , who received the award for their album Node .
reception
Thomas Strater from the German-speaking Metal Hammer judged that the album was not a snap shot, but rather well thought-out, mature and incidentally also showed attention to detail, which made Holy War grow in a positive sense. Even if the album seems bulky and closed at the beginning, the filigree guitar play creates a dystopian atmosphere in addition to the angry death metal sound that pulls the listener under its spell. He comes to the conclusion that Thy Art Is Murder would make deathcore dangerous again. Jan Wischkowski from Metal.de describes the work as a bastard of deathcore, technical death metal and now and then even black metal . Compared to the previous album Hate, the album does not have any major surprises or developments, as they have remained true to their recipe for success. The band moves with Holy War in current affairs and offers a brutal-sounding indictment against the prevailing grievances of today's society.
Pascal Staub from Stormbringer.at , however, described the album more neutrally, because despite the instrumental strength there are deficits in the songwriting, which, despite its current topic, shape the album into a monotonous intonation of various human abysses and brutalities. He credits the band for not being able to move from their musical roots without wearing themselves out musically. Staub predicts that this could already be heard on the upcoming record. According to Andreas Steiner from Stageload , the group on Holy War is based on its musical predecessor, although the diversity suffers as a result. The work has become a solid deathcore album, in which the musicians lack blood, snot and bile, but the songs are sterile and precise steamers. However, the reviewer would like more chaos and less fine-tuning for the upcoming album.
Individual evidence
- ^ Guitar World : Thy Art Is Murder Discuss New Album, 'Holy War'
- ^ Tyler Sharp: Alternative Press : Thy Art Is Murder to release new album, 'Holy War,' this summer
- ↑ Blabbermouth.net : THY ART IS MURDER: 'Holy War' Cover Artwork, Track Listing Revealed
- ↑ Peter Vincent: Sydney Morning Herald : Metal band Thy Art Is Murder told to ditch child 'suicide bomber' album cover
- ↑ Blabbermouth.net : THY ART IS MURDER: 'Light Bearer' Video Released
- ^ Drew Caruso: Alternative Press : Thy Art Is Murder release politically charged video for "Holy War"
- ↑ John Bazley: Alternative Press : Thy Art Is Murder release lyric video for "Violent Reckoning"
- ^ Peter Vincent: Sydney Morning Herald : Thy Art is Murder defend Islamic State-inspired music video for single Holy War
- ↑ a b c Bram Teitelman: Metalinsider.net : Thy Art Is Murder almost had a controversial album cover
- ↑ Charts DE Charts US Charts AU
- ↑ Chart sources: AU - US - DE ( Memento of the original from July 4, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Australian Recording Industry Association : ARIA Awards 2015
- ↑ Thomas Strater: Metal Hammer : Thy Art Is Murder - Holy War Review
- ↑ Jan Wischkowski: Metal.de : Thy Art Is Murder - Holy War criticism
- ↑ Pascal Staub: Stormbringer.at : Thy Art Is Murder - Holy War Critique
- ^ Andreas Steiner: Stageload : Thy Art Is Murder - Holy War Critique
