Image Via Facebook / Nuclear Blast

Thy Art Is Murder Reveal Uncensored ‘Holy War’ Artwork

Sydney deathcore act Thy Art Is Murder have shared the original uncensored cover art for their upcoming album, Holy War, after the artwork leaked online earlier this week.

The artwork depicts a young child dressed in a white robe, splattered with blood, standing with explosive devices strapped against their stomach and chest. The band explain that the iamge was initially intended to be used as the album’s official cover art, but they later opted to swap it out for a less confrontational cover.

“We wanted Holy War to be our most confronting release to date,” explains guitarist Andy Marsh. “From the moment the album title was conceived and the lyrics were born we had a distinct vision that the album cover artwork must be equally as confronting, as scary, and as real as what we are about as a band.

“Unfortunately after circulating our intended album cover around to the distributors and retailers, and after several meetings with the label and those we all work with, we were told we would have to cover the image, or choose a different cover. Not wanting to alter our desired cover in any way shape or form, we opted to contain it within the album packaging and roll with one of the other images from the layout.”

This uncensored artwork, shot by the band’s long time photographer Thomas Savage, will appear on a Limited Edition 12” picture disc vinyl version of Holy War. The band have said that Holy War is dedicated to “a child for every religion that has indoctrinated the young and disadvantaged, and sent them off to war and bloody death without cause or reason.”

Holy War will be released via UNFD on Friday, 26th June and pre-orders are available now. See the uncensored artwork below.

Gallery: Thy Art Is Murder @ Big Day Out 2013, Sydney / Photos by Olivia Hadisaputra

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