Thy Art Is Murder Defend Controversial Album Artwork

Aussie deathcore mainstays Thy Art Is Murder have officially unveiled the uncensored artwork for their forthcoming third studio full-length, Holy War, defending its depiction of a prepubescent, ambiguously religious suicide soldier as necessarily confrontational after the image leaked online recently.

"We wanted Holy War to be our most confronting release to date," the band's guitarist, Andy Marsh, said in a statement. "From the moment the album title was conceived and the lyrics were born, we had a distinct vision that the album cover artwork must be equally as confronting, as scary, and as real as what we are about as a band."

He's not kidding:

The band summarised the album's vision as being dedicated to "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".

"This album is for them," they wrote.

Despite the fact that — at the behest of distributors, retailers and "the label" (the band's new home, UNFD) — the final release will sport a censored cover and swap in an alternative photo from the same shoot at which the abandoned cover was taken by longtime visual collaborator Thomas Savage, Thy Art Is Murder have taken steps to nonetheless include the image printed on the album itself, indicating in a statement that the artwork itself is as important to the band's message on Holy War as any of its lyrical content.

"Unfortunately, after circulating our intended album cover around to the distributors and retailers, and after several meetings with the label and those we all work with, we were told we would have to cover the image, or choose a different cover," the band wrote. "Not wanting to alter our desired cover in any way, shape or form, we opted to contain it within the album packaging and roll with one of the other images from the layout."

Holy War is available for pre-order now, and drops Friday, 26 June, via UNFD.

holy war — track list

1. Absolute Genocide
2. Light Bearer
3. Holy War
4. Coffin Dragger
5. Fur & Claw
6. Deliver Us To Evil
7. Emptiness
8. Violent Reckoning
9. Child Of Sorrow
10. Naked & Cold