Thy Art Is Murder is a deathcore/death metal band that have been well received by fans of metal in,its self due to their unique idea of this heavy hardcore styled genre. From Australia too, which I find is not a common place to find metal bands outside of maybe AC/DC. Also, in case you're wondering, this is my third deathcore styled review this year, which shows that there are some gems.
Holy War is a ten track affair with less than 40 to try to enthrall you here. When you also look at the song titles like Absolute Genocide or Naked and Cold, you can tell that this has a more or less evil or antichristian vibe to it, which occasionally the lyrics match up with that theme but not always. I can personally get behind some of the breakdowns here(there's only one or two per track so...) and find only some of them meh or annoying due to a certain element in them. That's another thing, they don't need to rely on chugga riffing and almost constant breakdowns to make a song, they realized that it should focus more on the death metal aspect and ditch the chugging riffs entirely and lower or abolish breakdowns too. This brings it up to a high number already and should be discovered a bit more often than is seen, I'm looking at you Suicide Silence(disclaimer: they are a guilty pleasure of mine). Focusing more on the death metal aspect of things makes it a bit more intriguing to many non deathcore fans such as myself and somehow, they can pack so much chaos into 3 to 4 minutes and still make it all flow very, very well. Some say, like old fans, they got a bit softer here than their other works, even if they have I don't really want be engulfed by constant chugging and blasts that is present in many other deathcore, and even some death metal bands, particularly of the tech death side like Nile, Suffocation and Origin does. I do like some progression and some breathing room to something different here, and they seemed to accomplish it here, though once the album starts, the chaos will not end until it's over. They can show that even if you stick to one genre in its purity that you can still stand out from the crowd. That's why Megadeth, Tool, and Cannibal Corpse are so consistent and brought up so often in their respective genres. Thy Art For Murder has gained my respect here.
I give this an 8.5/10. I am the Grim Reaper, signing off.