See that album artwork for Thy Art is Murder? The cover of the band’s third album, Holy War, is kind of menacing. Featuring a child with a hood on, it suggests perhaps a solemn face of an innocent child in a war-torn country. However, today the band revealed the censored album artwork for the album, which will be out on June 26th on Nuclear Blast, and the provocative album artwork is just as startling, and about a million times less subtle. The same child is revealed to be a suicide bomber. Guitarist Andy Marsh explained the thinking behind the album cover, which was shot by the Australian bands’ longtime photographer and friend Thomas Savage:
“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.
“Here it is in all its magnificent glory, 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. This album is for them.”
Holy War, which will be out on June 26th, can be pre-ordered here in a variety of formats, some of which include the censored album art. The band will be on tour this Summer as part of the Mayhem Festival.
