Thy Art Is Murder – Amager Bio, Copenhagen

Photos and coverage by Joseph Miller

Chris “CJ” Macmahon, steps back onto the stage. The hood from his jumper is hanging over his face like the grim reaper, he leans forward towards his gothic looking microphone stand, which resembles something a bad guy in a horror movie would smack over someone’s head. The band pauses…

“Are you guys having a good time?” An instantaneous reply of, “YEEEAAHHHH” is heard and the band crash force into the next song.

The crowd are treated to a great line-up of bands for the night. Thy Art is Murder, Carnifex, Fit For An Autopsy, Rivers Of Nihil and I am are all having a party and they’ve brought the booze and noise with them.

The room is adorned with denim tank tops, stitched to the max with patches from the bands on the bill and more. I guess you could say, the crowd tonight are fans of the band (goes without question) but they make sure of this with constant head banging, mosh pits and screams between songs, something that adds to the spectacle of the night and I’m getting more excited as a result of the vibe.

Chris (CJ) saunters around the stage during songs, more like a cruisey jazz singer, teasing the crowd with his intellect and cracking jokes between songs. His stage presence is swallowed up by the crowd and his Thick Aussie accent is raising smiles and laughter from the crowd. Though when the songs begin, his screams are tearing down the walls and he could be from another planet for all we know.

Thy Art Is murder perform an incredible version of ‘Reign Of Darkness’ after kicking out tunes, ‘Death Squad anthem’ and ‘New Gods’ which are rightly greeted with head banging moments of delerium and fist pumps in the air. The room was bouncing.

I glance over at the ‘No crowd surfing’ sign and can’t help myself from falling into a fit of laughter when I see one after another for a period, do exactly that. The bald headed, shirtless guy trying to convince the security that he hadn’t seen the signs, kept my laughter echoing.

The guys continued through a journey on stage that would be welcome on a locomotive track. Steaming through the tracks at a speed and velocity that kept the audience wanting for more and smiling to the rafters.

A classy set from the deathcore act from Sydney. The fires may be under control back home, but these guys are still off the leash and expected to rip fire through venues and festivals for a long time to come.

San Diego’s ‘Carnifex’ offered the main support for the night and the american deathcore act didn’t disappoint with a hard driven and full throttle stage show and performance. The guys blast their way through their set like a nuclear explosion and a perfect cohesion of stage lights and awesome sound levels, make it an easy way to get excited about the rest of the show.

All the acts from the show contributed in making this an unforgettable night for the hardcore fans in the crowd and deathcore fanatics across Denmark.

One venue and five bands, all ripping down the paint from the walls and bursting the ear drums of the audience, can only make you think that Sundays are becoming less like the days of going round to your granny’s house for Sunday dinner and more like hanging out with Satan and his devil squad for a round of tequila and face slap of noise.

Lets ask CJ what he thinks we should all do with our Sundays. Stupid question.

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