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Thy Art is Murder, Concert Review
Who likes death metal? The answer to that is me which is why this is a review of a death metal show.
Introduction
A few month ago I wrote a series on here about going to concerts as a blind person. Live music has been such a big part of my life I wanted to share that with as many people as possible. The second part of that series was about going on your own as a blind person to shows. I had never done that so I got the help of Hector to write that.
Than recently I started writing music reviews on here. On august 24th 2018 I attended my first concert on my own. I thought I would share my experience as a follow up to that concert series as well as review the show.
So sit back and enjoy reading about Thy Art is Murder at Miranda hotel.
Arriving at the venue
So this was my biggest concern going on my own. I figured once I was inside I could find a spot out of the way and just set up camp. But I was worried about that getting in part.
Being worried about that turned out to be a waste of time. I took maybe 5 steps out of the car I didn’t even make it to the doors of the venue when a person who for this article we will call Steve came up and asked if I needed help.
Now I like the Miranda hotel and I have had a drink or 2 there in the nearly 7 years since I reached drinking age. But the system they have for getting people in to the concert venue part of the place is painful.
It takes a long time but luckily for me I arrived 45 minutes early. This is partly because I wanted to arrive early and partly because they pushed door opening back by half an hour with out sending out any notification to those of us who bought tickets.
This wait could have been very boring but I got chatting with Steve and his friend about music and even though I went to the show on my own I ended up making some new friends and wasn’t actually alone at all.
Xile
If you have dreams of being a musician let me give you this little piece of advice. Say your band name in a way the crowd can understand.
Honestly Xile could have been better and could have been worse. The four gentlemen playing guitars and drums new how to play and honestly played some good music. The down side for this band was the vocalist who didn’t really seem to care about staying in time.
As opening acts go I have seen much worse but I certainly wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again.
The funny part is I didn’t even know what they were called until later in the night when some of the other bands said the name. When ever he spoke his own band name he yelled it out in a way that meant you couldn’t fucking understand it.
For screen reader users that is Xile said like Exile.
Location location
So after arriving very early we were given our wrist banned’s so once doors opens we were able to just head in. This meant we were able to pick where ever we wanted to chill for the show.
My first thought was to take front and centre. Honestly I have done this in the past and while it can be fun. I prefer to just chill at the back these days.
But my new friends Steve and Jack planned to set up near the back so we just set up back and centre.
We found a bench to lean on and got ready for some good music. Right back to the bands.
Antagonist AD
I have actually seen this band before. Back in 2011 they supported on a show I went to. Since than they released an album, toured, took a long break, reformed and released some more new music.
Back in 2011 I remember thinking wow I don’t care for this band. Not bad but not good.
7 years on and they haven’t really changed much. They put on what I can only describe as a lacking performance. It lacked energy and really it lacked talent. The message behind the songs was good but the songs them selves were boring and performed poorly.
However I wasn’t here to see them so lets just move on.
Alpha Wolf
Another band I have seen before. Becoming a staple of the Australian heavy music seen Alpha wolf have been on several tours I have been to see over the past 18 months. Each time I cared for them less and less. Musically I quite enjoyed them but vocally I thought they were pretty shit. However a twist came in that they got a new vocalist about 3 months ago and dropped a new song. With that in mind I went in to this interested to see how the new vocals would go.
I have to say they came out of the gates swinging and certainly took things up to another level from the first two bands. While they are not on the same level as Thy Art is Murder they have certainly made some good line up changes.
Musically this was the tightest performance I have ever seen from them and the new vocalist showed just how capable he was very quickly.
They went through some older Alpha Wolf stuff including a few tracks I new before launching in to 2 new songs. The rounded this out with Alpha Wolfs most popular song and called it a night.
They didn’t waste any time and put on a pretty dam good show and the crowd responded. Even though they were the third band of the night they were the first to get any sort of good reaction from the crowd.
But most of us were here to see Thy Art is Murder and they were up next.
Thy Art Is Murder
The energy in the room went to a new level once Alpha Wolf had left the stage. Alpha wolf had done the job they were here to do, they got the crowd ready for the main act.
The chants for the band to take the stage started up from the moment they started bringing the gear up on the stage.
Not a band to waste time only 15 minutes after Alpha Wolf left the creepy music started and Thy Art is Murder took to the stage.
This is the second time this year and thirteenth over all that I have seen Thy Art is Murder but I enjoy the show every time!
They stepped out and from the word go they were relentless. 2 songs off 2017s release Dear Desolation opened the show including my personal favourite track from the album Puppet master.
They went in to the next to songs with get the fuck up cunts as they jumped in to two tracks off 2015s Holy War album.
A moment now to thank the crowd for coming out and the old friends who made the trip from Western Sydney before we got two songs off 2012s release Hate.
By now Thy Art is Murder have got the crowd worked up and it is clear that being on the road for 12 months straight has not made them lazy. The performance is brilliant and even with there drummer out for the time being they were putting on a perfect performance.
Now it was time for me to get a surprise. Having been to quite a few Thy Art is Murder shows over the past 8 years I have had the chance to meet the band mainly the vocalist CJ on several occasions. So it was to my surprise when he announced that the next song an old song was dedicated to well me. He didn’t point me out in the crowd but Dead Sun is a fucking good song especially live so fuck yeah!
Two more songs off Dear desolation followed by one more off Holy War and we are getting to the end of the night.
They have never been big on the hole leave the stage wait for the crowd to keep cheering and come back for one more song. Instead they gave a short speech about not wanting to play the songs off there first EP any more than jumped in to the final song of the night. Reign of Darkness went fucking off and is one of my favourite endings to a show!
Thy Art is Murder are one of the biggest Death Metal bands out of Australia right now and this night showed why. From start to finish this show was high energy and from the performance of every member on stage to the energy of the crowd this is what live music should fucking be!
Rating
I will rate each band.
Xile:
3 out of 10.
Antagonist AD:
3.5 out of 10
Alpha wolf:
7 out of 10.
Thy Art Is Murder:
10 out of 10
Fight me if you don’t like a 10 out of 10 rating.
Conclusion
I loved writing this so if you would like to see more gig reviews let me know. Other wise I will stick to albums and live dvds.