Interview by Kris Peters
Thy Art Is Murder are up there with Australia's greatest ever extreme metal exports.
They have taken their music far and wide, appearing at prestigious festivals around the world like Summer Breeze, Download, Graspop and Wacken and playing with bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Slayer, Kreator, Lamb Of God, Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive. Their thinking-person’s blackened death metal has challenged, provoked and inspired audiences around the world with little regard for expectation or conformity.
In Australia the band has been nominated for two ARIA Awards and smashed existing chart records and convention. They have won the hearts and ears of a global audience and continue to deliver their strong social messages without fear of reproach or muzzling.
And you get the feeling they have only just started.
With their latest album Godlike set for release on September 15, HEAVY spent some time with guitarist Andy Marsh to go into more detail.
We're feeling really good," he affirmed ahead of the release. "It's exciting, especially when you've worked on something for so long and you have to keep it to yourself. I'm looking forward to getting some feedback from the wider community and the fans."
Godlike is Thy Art Is Murder's sixth album, so we ask Marsh if by now the band has a set process of doing things or if each album cycle differs from the last.
"It's pretty much the same," he said, "get together, write some riffs, put some songs together as best we can and meet up with our producer Will Putney and finish the job. It normally takes four to six weeks. Last year we spent siix months piecing the thing together."
We press Marsh on what to expect musically from Godlike.
"I can't tell you too much, really," he measured. "We're just trying to step things up quite a bit. We had a lot of time off, a lot of time to think of new ideas, a lot of time to think about where we were thinking of taking the band in the future. So just trying to incorporate some groovier elements, bigger choruses and imagine what we could put on the CD that's gonna help elevate the band to the next level of it's career."
In the full interview, Andy talks deeper about Godlike, the singles put out so far and how they represent the overall picture, releasing an album independently for the first time, the themes explored on the album, the cover artwork and where it comes from, how Thy Art Is Murder's sound has changed from their debut album in 2010 to now, future plans and more.