Australian Deathcore Outfit Thy Art Is Murder Came To Nashville And Annihilated The Joint Live At The Basement East On March 5th, 2023

Review and Live Photos: Josh Trotter

Since the early 2000’s Thy Art Is Murder has been melting the faces of their fans and their Nashville Decade Of Hate tour date was proof they are still doing it! It was a stacked lineup of nothing but death metal. TAIM and Justice For the Damned, both Australian bands were touring the US with New York’s Undeath and Texas natives I AM and Kublai Khan. Sold out venue The Basement East was packed! Seeing patrons with past tour shirts and merch just purchased was a beautiful sight.

JFTD opened the show with some sick and nasty riffs that you just have to move to. The five-piece Australian heavy metal band was excited to be in Nashville for the first time and even stated they had not even been to the United States before. I’m sure this tour won’t be their last here. They say everything is bigger in Texas and that holds to the riffs I AM gave us during their set. Chugging along, the crowd opened a pit and were moshing along to every song.

Undeath although missing their vocalist (Alexander Jones), still put on an amazing show! Who would turn down a full set of metal instrumentals to headbang to? They did not let up, playing songs from their multiple albums since 2019. Keeping the crowd moving until it was time to pass the torch to their tour mates in Kublai Khan. Fans cheered with horns in the air as the Texans took the Nashville stage. Matt Honeycutt (vocals) expressed his gratitude to the guys in Thy Art Is Murder for bringing them back on tour with them. Honeycutt stated their first tour was with TAIM. As Kublai Khan rocked the house, the crowd did too with pit after pit and crowd surfing, there wasn’t a single person in the crowd standing still.

Closing out the show the bonzer band Thy Art Is Murder walked on the pitch black stage. The crowd roared until they were drowned out by the music. As the lights strobed and washed across the stage you could see the details of a skeleton as a microphone stand leaning back as the deep growls let out. The crowd went wild chanting the lyrics along with the music. You would think with four heavy bands a fifth would slow the crowd down but not this one! Crowd surfing as the pit was stirring up. It lasted until the last song on the setlist.

If you have not seen or heard of any of these bands and you are a metalhead, you are missing out! The tour is almost over but keep an eye out because I’m sure it won’t be too long before they come back with even more amazing bands.