Thy Art Is Murder
19th October 2018
Galatos, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Kate Taylor. Digital Painting by Leon Taylor.
Shedding the shackles of daily bullshit, the hard-working hardcore and metal fans of Auckland collected at Galatos last night to celebrate the brutality that is Thy Art Is Murder as they maraud around the country bringing us their incendiary metal deliciousness. With superbly quality supports in each city; Decimated King in Wellington, Silent Torture in Auckland and Mercy in Christchurch and Xile on each date, Thy Art is Murder – The Death Dealer’s NZ tour is a landmark set of events on the Summer of Metal dance card…and you better believe we’re going to be punching some slots on that baby toniiight!
As Silent Torture slayed I was in the midst of a nightmare parking situation, or a “deparkle” you might say; but that’s OK there’s no way that Auckland’s most exciting Death Metal band and arguably New Zealand’s own Cannibal Corpse would not have completely slayed the crowd and their expectations. Seeing a sweaty and spent Liam Torture at the front door of Galatos getting some air when I arrived illustrated that as always, Silent Torture would have given their all; so go check `em out on Spotify if you haven’t already, go buy Self-Phallic Mastication…the album that reached the #7 spot on the NZ charts the week of release beating out well established, radio-friendly acts like Katchafire, The Adults, Sons of Zion and more plus the ridiculously brutal cover art was created by the very dude that’s created the masterpiece you see at the top of this review, so it’s gotta be good for ya. Buy Silent Torture’s album, buy their merch, fund their plans for world domination…it’s that simple.
Enter the Xile. It’s been a minute since my favourite New Zealand hardcore band delighted my ears and eyes in a live setting and let me tell ya, the new songs that these lads have been off cooking up were blisteringly good, with one in particular serving as a shout out to Johnny Danger; as Xile’s frontperson Luke shared with us, that when they learned of Danger’s passing they were in studio at the time, so we all came together in our appreciation of this sparkling soul and Danger Swigged in his memory (which he would have loved). Xile’s presence was erupting with intensity as the pit worked to match their ferocity; to the uninitiated the force of the set and churning pit seeming dangerous, on the edge of breaking out into full scale carnage, so much so that the conscientious security guard for the evening almost got his head taken off by trying to sate the Friday night will of a 60+ circle pit, but he learned that night; that this is what it’s all about – casting off the week and dancing it out in the most violently freeing way as possible. Mr. Security learned about hardcore on this night, as down in the trenches it was all sadistically caring support of each other, a brutal brethren. Xile are road-tested and studio strengthened presenting a formidable package, with Luke commanding the stage in exceptional fashion and Simon popping veins in his neck and face as he screamed his BVs and bashed the gat. There were haymakers thrown, eruptions of Grafton growls, two-stepping to oblivion and whirls of bodies colliding in cathartic release…and that was just me, as I felt that ghost of hardcore kid gone by unsheathing my rage and letting it loose.
Penetrating the stage post Xile, Thy Art is Murder are awesome at their dispensing with gig theatricality bullshit and sneaking quietly to stage, instead they just came on with no foreplay and blasted our faces off in a three-song machine gun attack that left us gasping; they’re lean, they cut the fat and don’t go for that ‘rock-star’ encore pantomime. New Zealand loooves them some of Sydney’s sons Thy Art is Murder and we’ll host them here at any opportunity we get, especially this time as CJ and Team Thy Art get to stretch their legs and see a little more of Aotearoa; as CJ barked “Last couple of years we’ve only come here twice. With like only one show in Auckland which is good for you dudes and girls, but there’s some other beautiful places in New Zealand and with decent bands that wanna play with us…I just wanna thank Angie [Stewart from Third Eye Music] from Christchurch for bringing us out here, without her we wouldn’t be here, thanks to the guys that have supported us Silent Torture and Xile…we always have a good time when we come here and we always have good relationships with the Kiwis, except for the airports, they suck the people at the airports, as soon as we get out of the airport we’re all cool.”
Since Thy Art is Murder’s last visit to Auckland we’ve been given the remarkable album Dear Desolation which has slingshot the lads into several inconceivably prestigious festivals including Rock am Ring 2018. When we last met up with CJ he was newly returned to Thy Art and humbly was concerned that he was not “match fit” but tonight there was no shadow of a doubt that CJ is now a lean, mean squealing machine that takes his role very seriously. As CJ took a sip of beer to moisten up his vox an excited punter screamed “Chug, Chug, CHUUUGG!” to which CJ deftly replied, “Nah fuck you bro. I do so much for you fucking guys and every time I chug I get all gassed and I throw up a bit in my mouth while I’m playing, but it does prove that I’m singing for real and that I’m not singing on a track like The Amity Affliction…” Well…burn! “…You can tell them that I told you that, we’re friends with them, pretty sure they ain’t going to like me after I tell ya that, I don’t give a fuck…Anyway, we’re doing this tour with some Kiwi friends and we just wanna have a good time with them boys in Xile…” cue a chorus of Grafton growls from the Xile massive in the building, “…[Xile] did a song for an NZ hero that died this year, cut his life way too short. If you’ve got a drink I want you to put it up in the air and on the count of three, you know who the fuck I’m talking about if you don’t you can’t consider yourself a real Kiwi…so let’s Danger Swig, to Johnny Danger muthafuckers, 1, 2, 3 let’s do it!…” so all those that had a drink in hand or those who didn’t just Danger Swigged their horns “…this next song is called The Purest Strain of something…” showing CJ’s having a joke at Thy Art’s expense and is all about the good times in addition to their brutal musicality.
Thy Art is Murder set the scene for beautiful savagery in the pit, a melding of metal windmills and hardcore fist throwers coming together to express to tunes that bridge the gap between genres perfectly; as walls of death formed repeatedly without any encouragement from our carnival of carnage ring master CJ who swayed above us, taking a step up on the foldbacks at times to blood-throated scream his words into our faces; once leaning back to deliver a charming pig squeal that sent shivers up the spines of the psychopaths agitating in the merciless merry-go-round of limbs, with the countless bursts of circle pit action we were treated to, turning the floor of Galatos seemingly into a trampoline on closing track Reign of Darkness from 2013’s Hate, as we merged and bounced as one. In that exquisite dichotomy of brutalistic tunes actually being the safe haven sub-culture of the marginalized – we’re here to care for each other and check in on one another as CJ requested “Make sure you look after each other, if you’ve taken drugs or you’ve drunk tonight don’t drive, a lot of mates have killed and people [in general] have killed themselves in car accidents after concerts in pubs, so make sure you get a cab or an Uber after the show and party all the way…anyway we’re Thy Art is Murder and we’ve got a few more for ya… I hope you guys enjoyed your night, get home safe, look after each other and be happy in life. Fuck all the bullshit that’s going on, we’re all fucked anyway, so try to be as happy as you can.”
As Xile reminded us, life is fleeting and we need to cherish it and the ones we live it with; while Thy Art is Murder stated that if world situations are anything to gauge on this planet, we’re all going down in a fiery ball of turds but for the moment it’s best to live it up, laugh it up and keep a good `tude as although things might not get better – at least we can all look after each other and laugh (or Danger Swig…) in the face of the things that try to bring us down. Christchurch get ready – you’re about to have the best Saturday night you’ve had in a very long time and if you don’t have your tickets yet get on to it NOW! There wasn’t a missed note last night, on stage or in the hearts of the punters attending and I’d say that made the night the greatest strain of great.
Were you there at Galatos for this brutal deathcore gig? Or have you seen Thy Art Is Murder perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Thy Art is Murder Setlist:
- Dear Desolation
- Puppet Master
- Holy War
- Coffin Dragger
- Purist Strain Of Hate
- Shadow Of Eternal Skin
- Absolute Genocide
- No Absolution
- Dead Sun
- Slaves Beyond Death
- The Son Of Misery
- Light Bearer
- Reign Of Darkness
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