Thy Art Is Murder – Chris “CJ” McMahon

For years has Western Sydney death metal group Thy Art Is Murder been a driving force in Australia’s death metal/core scene. Their gore-filled themes, evil vocals and astonishing 7 string (and 8 string) guitar assault has helped them become successful across the world and play many packed shows across Australia. At the end of last year, the band got War from a Harlot’s Mouth to come down from Germany and tour with them, and recently that band did Thy Art Is Murder a favour by taking them on their first ever European tour. As the tour just finished a couple of days ago, Thy Art are in New York right now working on a brand new album.

With that in mind, Metal Obsession had a chat to the bands vocalist CJ McMahon about the European tour, new album and touring with a party metal band.

Metal Obsession: So you just finished your European tour with War from a Harlot’s Mouth, As Blood Runs Black and Bermuda, your first ever international tour. How did it go?

CJ McMahon: It was amazing for us all to come over on amazing package. All the bands we played with; Bermuda, As Blood Runs Black and War from a Harlots Mouth are all our brothers for life, NBH FOR LIFE! The shows were off the chain. Some small, most big, and all crazy as fuck. The catering and touring coach were the highest of quality, and we all felt a little too well looked after, full rockstar treatment hahaha.

We sold all our merch, saw amazing buildings, landscapes, architecture, cities, country sides, toilets, people, fans, smoking CAFE’S in Holland, etc. It was a life changing and growing experience for us all. We really got our music and name smashed into a lot of European areas now. We are so stoked.

Metal Obsession: What was your favourite country to play in and why?

CJ: It would have to be Germany, because all the shows were massive, all the crowds went crazy, the food, drinks and people were all top class

Metal Obsession: Did you come across any great local bands during the tour that deserve a shout out?

CJ: Yeah, there were a few. I won’t remember all of them, but: Silence of Sleep (Germany) were so awesome and heavy as fuck. When Walls Colapse (Holland) were also cool dudes. There are a few more, but I can’t think of them at the moment.

Metal Obsession: So I see Thy Art Is Murder have headed to New York now to start recording a new album. Can you tell me a bit about who you’re recording with?

CJ: His name is Wil Putney from The Machine Shop in New Jersey. He has done amazing albums with bands, and we believe he is going to be the next big recording/producing engineer in the world. We need someone to work with and capture our true sound and make something out of this world; we believe we need Wil Putney to help us do this.

Metal Obsession: What can we expect from your new material? Will it be similar to The Adversary or are you taking a different path musically?

CJ: Well I can’t say much really, we are still writing and open to Wil’s ideas, so some things may change or be re-written. It’s hard to say, we just do what we always have; write what we want, how we want, about what we want, and see what happens. All I can say is it’s going to heavy as fuck. Dark as the night sky, and destroying like no other

Metal Obsession: Is there any particular theme behind the lyrics of this album?

CJ: There are a few ideas and themes we are writing about, but I’m not giving anything away yet, hahaha. Just expect chaos, fear, destruction and death. We plan on making this the biggest album for us and the metal world.

Metal Obsession: Most importantly, when do the fans get to hear some new stuff?

CJ: Not really sure yet. Maybe August/September, but yeah, we can’t promise anything. We want to do everything right by our plans.

Metal Obsession: Back when you released your debut album The Adversary, you did a full Australian tour with Electrik Dynamite as support, who is a band more influenced by 80’s metal. They are an incredible band and I was stoked to see the both of you play a show together (for the second time because of Spudfest 2010). But I’m interested to know, what brought along the idea to tour all of Australia with an incredibly different band genre-wise as the support act? How did the rest of the crowd generally react to Electrik Dynamite?

CJ: Well they were on the tour because we choose them. We do everything ourselves we have no boss and label trying to control us. Electrik Dynamite are our good friends and they’re an amazing band, so it was easy to decide on taking them on tour with us. The crowd always loved them, and it was great to have a different genre to mix up the bill rather than destroying your brain to death metal every night.

Metal Obsession: About the all age show you played in Geelong on that tour. Do you have any footage of Thy Art Is Murder dressed up as Electrik Dynamite that you plan on releasing? There is footage online of Electrik Dynamite dressed up as you guys, but no footage of you dressed up as them.

CJ: Hahaha! Yeah, somewhere I guess. It was a fuckin’ awesome night, best show of the tour. We had so much fun

Metal Obsession: Being one of the leading bands of Sydney’s death metal/core scene, what do you think of most of the upcoming bands around that area? Are there any bands that deserve a mention?

CJ: Yeah, the future for Sydney/Western Sydney is good and young. I think many bands will be exploding in a year or two. As far as bands I have always known and loved, Northlane are killing it now and I’m so pumped for them. Shinto Katana kills the hardcore circuit as well. But yeah, I think we need more bands coming through now and more shows, not just international bands. We gotta support and build our local music more.

Metal Obsession: I’m going to ask a couple of non-music related questions here. What was the first thing you ever got into serious trouble for?

CJ: Same as the things I get in trouble for now; swearing and playing with my dick, hahaha!

Metal Obsession: What did you get your first major pay for? What did you spend it on?

CJ: Well if you’re asking about money from the band, we don’t get paid, never have. Mine was once when I was working at a restaurant, I got paid $1850 for the week and I spent it in clothes, shoes and weed.

Metal Obsession: What was the first CD you ever purchased? Did you/do you still like that CD?

CJ: I think it was “Nevermind” by Nirvana. It was amazing and still is.

Metal Obsession: If Thy Art Is Murder were to cover a song by any older metal band, what would it be?

CJ: Not too sure. Maybe “Raining Blood” by Slayer.

Metal Obsession: Anything else you’d like to say?

CJ: Just a big thanks to Daniel Miztal and Chucky for managing, booking, doing our sound, tour managing us and everything else. Also thanks to our fans, friends and family. Cheers!