''Dear Desolation'' is the fourth studio album by Australian

deathcore Deathcore is an extreme metal subgenre that combines death metal with metalcore. The genre consists of death metal guitar riffs, blast beats, and metalcore Breakdown (music)#Heavy metal and punk rock, breakdowns. While there are some precursors ...

band

Thy Art Is Murder Thy Art Is Murder is an Australian deathcore band from Blacktown, Sydney, that formed in 2006. The band consists of vocalist Tyler Miller, guitarists Sean Delander and Andy Marsh, bassist Kevin Butler and drummer Jesse Beahler. Thy Art Is Murde ...

. The album was released on 18 August 2017 by

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast Records is a German record label with subsidiary, subsidiaries located in Germany, the United States and Brazil. It was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Donzdorf. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label moved on ...

. The record is the band's last album with founding drummer Lee Stanton, as well as the first to feature Kevin Butler on bass.

Background

Following the release of their third full-length album ''Holy War'' in 2015, vocalist CJ McMahon briefly left the band. In January 2017, the band announced McMahon's return and released the stand-alone single "No Absolution" (a B-side from the ''Holy War'' recording sessions) as part of the announcement. According to Eliran Kantor, the artist behind the album's cover, the image of the wolf feeding a baby lamb serves to convey the album's primary themes of greed, oppression, cynicism, preying on and misleading the weak, and the connection of fear & hope; the wolf feeding the baby lamb outwardly portrays kindness, while in reality, the wolf is helping the lamb to grow in order to prepare a bigger meal for herself.

Critical reception

The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. ''Exclaim!'' called it "the band's strongest album to date", noting the band's stylistic shift from

towards conventional

death metal Death metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking; deep death growl, growling vocals; aggressive ...

inspired by bands like

Behemoth Behemoth (; , ''bəhēmōṯ'') is a beast from the biblical Book of Job, and is a form of the primeval chaos-monster created by God at the beginning of creation. Metaphorically, the name has come to be used for any extremely large or powerful ...

and

Cannibal Corpse Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1988, now based in Tampa, Florida. The band has released sixteen studio albums, two box sets, four video albums, and two live albums. The band has had little radio ...

. It has been described as continuing their prior

sound by ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

''. ''

'' praised McMahon's vocal performance, and wrote that though the album is "short on the penetrative hooks that ''

Holy War A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war (), is a war and conflict which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion and beliefs. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent t ...

'' possessed in abundance, ''Into Chaos We Climb'' and ''The Final Curtain's'' seismic jolts and haunting leads leave an indelible mark for deathcore disciples to latch onto."

Track listing

Personnel

Thy Art Is Murder

* Chris "CJ" McMahon – vocals * Andy Marsh – lead guitar * Sean Delander – rhythm guitar * Kevin Butler – bass guitar * Lee Stanton – drums

Production

Eliran Kantor Eliran Kantor (; born 13 September 1984) is a Berlin-based Israeli artist and illustrator known mostly for creating album covers for metal bands such as Testament, Soulfly, Helloween and My Dying Bride. Album cover illustration credits Source: ...

– artwork * Will Putney – mixing, mastering,

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

* Randy LeBeouf – additional engineering * Steve Seid – additional engineering * Randy Slaugh – additional programming

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2017 albums Thy Art Is Murder albums Nuclear Blast albums Albums produced by Will Putney