Giving further insight into their upcoming Human Target album, Thy Art Is Murder have released second single “Death Squad Anthem”. The new track sets its sights unflinchingly upon our modern society that’s under collapse. “Death Squad Anthem” hits its point home most powerfully with a confronting music video created by Wilson Bambrick. The giant wheels of advancement and greed are coming at the cost of crushing humanity beneath them, and Thy Art Is Murder outwardly question the value of war.
A punishing pace coupled with footage of war, violence, famine, disaster, and destruction makes for a breath-holding experience. A stomping pace and driving riffs take the listener into a ‘look what they’ve created’ presentation, directed toward powers that be who hold war as a means to find peace. Deemed “obselete”, Thy Art Is Murder see compliance and lack of awareness as our means of being controlled and used, and the actions of rioting and resisting as the power we can potentially wield.
While it’s not a completely new idea, as bands like Rage Against The Machine, Stray From The Path, and Fever 333 have been explicitly outspoken in the way the individuals have power in their ability to refuse to be controlled, “Death Squad Anthem” hits home like a sledgehammer nonetheless. I’m barely able to stomach the spectacle of starvation, suicide attempts, and humanity at their worst. The point is well made. This isn’t fiction. We’re seeing the worst of what we’re existing within/amongst all at once. How can one not get angry about it?
The mammoth track, full of intense guitar work and urgent rhythms operates as a call to arms, to wake up, and to revolt. Human Target, which releases next month via Human Warfare, is almost guaranteed to highlight similar shadows of our human existence, and spark awareness and fiery curiosity of what else is possible, aside from the ‘solutions’ we’ve been fed and obediently consumed.
Watch “Death Squad Anthem” below, and pre-order Human Target via ThyArtIsMurder.com. I’d recommend trying to catch Thy Art Is Murder on their ‘Life In The Crosshairs’ tour too (with Dealer and Wither as support), but unfortunately it’s fully sold out!
