Review Summary: Thy Art Is Murder enhances all their aspects, and implement a new element of old-school brutality.
The deathcore world's main topic for one period of time is suffering two losses, one coming before the other: The departure of Thy Art's crushingly good vocalist, CJ McMahon, and Smooshishide Shiiilenshe's self-titled album, which totally devastated the sound of the pinnacle of what deathcore is and should be, leaving the lands in a state of chaos waiting for something (un)holy to bathe light once again at this genre of music.
And that's where the Deathcore Gods, Thy Art is Murder, came in along, ressurecting and summoning their champion, their hercules, their beast, CJ, to come back to this world to not only save what is left, but to rise it once again, and make it better. And this is how Dear Desolation is made.
Their previous record, Holy War, made a special place in any listener's heart with delicate guitar chugs, desperate atmosphere, and crispy drumming, and one of those hearts is also mine, waiting for their new set of chugging greatness to finally release,soothing my ears with everything aforementioned once again. And this time, it happened. not differently, not radically-but with more heaviness, giving spice to the sauce with a handful of new elements that you can smell throughout the album.
One of the main differences that this new album has is that that the elements of the previous album are enhanced in the form of EVERYTHING.
Although Lee Stanton isn't exactly Flo Moulnier, he pulled off extremely neat drum patterns on Holy War, which were the first indicators of ''HEADBANGING TIME, KIIDS!'' and ''BREAKDOWN TIME, KIIDS!'', with one small flaw being that eventually, the listener shall have a feeling that there is a lot of ''air leaking'' in some of Earplug Lord's drum patterns. In Dear Desolation, this feeling is neutralized, and the album lets you know that straight off the bat with the first track, Slaves Beyond Death, which opens with a blast beat pairing perfectly with iconic guitar chugging. When it comes to other tracks like Dear Desolation, Death Dealer and pretty much most of the tracks here, the drumming can be described by one word: CRISP. Kick drums are even more violated in segments, and the blast beats are even more......CRISP! Yes, CRISP!
Throughout Thy Art Is Murder's discography (with the especial exception of The Adversary), CJ has not been an ordinary vocalist in the realm of deathcore. He is no cookie monster, no whiny cub, but a prophet of an unholy approach standing in front of a hundred thousand people with a soaring, growling, demonic voice awaring the people of our final days, which will end in doomsday and desolation,with that attribute putting him above all the beasts in extreme metal in my head. This time, his absolutely bestial voice goes even further with him shouting pre-breakdown lines from the bottom of his guts (The Skin of The Serpent, Man is The Enemy),and adding more deep, guttural vocals in the title track for example, leading the prophet's followers engage in a group ritual of banging their heads back and forth in the same motion, embracing the desolation of which is his gospel. Desolation? Hm, i wonder how that word came in my mind...
Although there is no difference in breakdown schemes, The album has the tendency of ending disturbingly soothing notes with a primal breakdown (notably Into Chains We Climb) to end the track with a grand finale that gives you no air to breathe.
After having all the essential parts of the past two albums enhanced, there comes a really interesting edition in this album that is the thing that differs it from previous releases. The oregan on the pizza: Not really dominating, but you definetly know it takes its place. It spices everything up, leaving a nice taste (and aftertaste) in your mind.
My boys, it's the Oldschool Death Metal influence.
In most of the cases, the people's expectations for the teaser track Slaves Beyond Death are not exactly what occured in the track, many people realizing that it was, let's say- lowkey death metal, which surprised many fans including myself, because simply saying that a deathcore band became a pure death metal band has a nice punch to it. The track smelled way more of new implementations than essential roots which without Thy Art Wouldn't be Thy Art. It smelled not of a beggining of something totally new, but something that shall surely enhance their permformances and the album overall. And the specualtions inside of a fan's head began. What's this next album going to be? What's going to be the difference? Shall this difference be big?
Well, not exactly. Although you could possibly give this album a description of ''death metal'' on the side of deathcore, It is not exactly only one of the things. But yes, there is a new motive, that can be heard in tracks such as The Final Curtain, Dear Desolation, the aforementioned Slaves Beyond Death etc. This motive serves solely to surprise a new listener to the release, keep an old one, but most importantly is a statement from the quintet that deathcore shouldn't be just a thing that keeps going forward in the same manner, and keep going but eventually go nowhere, only increasing in breakdowns, evil or other things. Hearing something like Dear Desolation kind of refreshes you, you know.
The only flaw that this album has is that it is not perfect. It simply is not. All the elements of their music formula are at its prime, but this album brings nothing that has never been seen or eventually wouldn't be seen if it wasn't released, and deathcore as a whole genre does not bring you into any other world than this three-dimensional one. Altough i think it is better than it's predecessor and there will be people who will think the same, this is NOT the band's Magnum Opus, and i doubt that their next album will be a masterpiece.
Dear Desolation is going to help deathcore to restore itself in a new form, and their ''Make Deathcore great again'' hats which are sold as merch are no joke. Along with bands like Shadow Of Intent and Aversions Crown, this new release is making a statement that it shall be great again, in a slightly newer light than the bands such as I Declare War, old BMTH and Shooishide Shiilenshe.
Definetly.
