Thy Art Is Murder Sign With Iconic Nuclear Blast Label

Sydney metal outfit Thy Art Is Murder have signed an international label deal with one of the world's most recognisable and respected heavy metal labels Nuclear Blast

The deal, which covers all territories outside of Australia, New Zealand and Canada (they're signed to Shock imprint Halfcut locally and Distort Entertainment in Canada), will see the release of last year's album Hate in Europe and the US this April. The record received a rousing response when theMusic.com.au streamed it pre-release (the stream's now down).

Founded in Germany n the late '80s, Nuclear Blast calls itself the “world's biggest” independent heavy metal label and boasts act like Anthrax, Dimmu Borgir, Meshuggah, Nightwish and Sepultura on its roster.

Thy Art, who are currently on the Big Day Out festival tour, were signed by the label's US head Monte Connor who said in a statement, “After getting multiple calls and emails from various industry contacts telling me, 'You gotta hear this band!' and seeing the online buzz at iTunes here in the US, it was very clear to me that something very real and organic was happening; this band was reacting massively all on their own.”

The band grew out of the Western Sydney metal/hardcore boom, which was fuelled by the rise of MySpace and subsequently the band – and their team – has built upon that original social media footprint.

Today the band's guitarist Andy Marsh said, “To say we now share a label with the greatest extreme metal bands of all time is ridiculous. It was never a dream, it was impossible. But we've done it.”

Much fanfare was also made in 2008 when Tasmanian technical metal band Psycroptic signed to the label, which they're still signed to today.