Thy Art is Murder – Dear Desolation (2017) – The ominous is fascinating.

One of the most beautiful album covers of 2017 could not hide the apex sound of the Australian band Thy Art Is Murder. In each release the band perfects deathcore and builts an increasingly technical musical structure. "Dear Desolation" dictates the ways that deathcore should follow in the years to come.

There are 10 tracks of uninterrupted blast, neither a miserable second is wasted to breathe, just riff over riff like a wave sequence that drowns even the most accomplished swimmer. Slaves Beyond Death triggers the ignition with the drums in machine-gun mode until the echoed screams typical of deathcore are heard, the aggressiveness is fluid, even when musical time slows down during the breakdowns. The uniformity of the album is sensational, there is no point outside the curve and at the same time it does not bore the listener. Highlights? Pick any one from the tracklist, but if it were to choose a single maybe I would Puppet Master with his terrifying cadence interspersed by groove to headbang, or I could Death Dealer and its atmospheric intro, in slower gait that picks up speed and evolves into sing-along guttural vocals. The exciting ending with The Final Curtain filled with "tremolo picking" makes the whole journey end up under an uneasy feeling of precocity.

Listening to "Dear Desolation" is to enter a hostile, nefarious terrain, that has the power to magnetically attracted us by our survival instinct. As a little lamb sucking a wolf's nipple, Thy Art Is Murder's aggressive sound is haunting but at the same time it gives strengh and allows survival. The future paths of deathcore definitely go through Sydney.

Tracklist
1.Slaves Beyond Death 03:44
2.The Son of Misery 04:18
3.Puppet Master 03:15
4.Dear Desolation 03:21
5.Death Dealer 04:08
6.Man Is the Enemy 03:28
7.The Skin of the Serpent 03:58
8.Fire in the Sky 04:10
9.Into Chaos We Climb 04:05
10.The Final Curtain 03:50

Final conclusion:

Marcelo Hissa