It’s certainly commendable that three of metal’s heaviest modern bands – Thy Art Is Murder, The Acacia Strain and Fit For An Autopsy – have gotten together to record this six-track EP, but, while the spirit of camaraderie is here in spades, the main talking point that will dominate The Depression Sessions is the fact that it is the final release to feature a CJ McMahon-fronted Thy Art Is Murder.
It’s not the greatest swansong either, with new song They Will Know Another impressing with its slow-build-turned-frantic-blastbeat action yet never reaching the heights of last year’s Holy War album. And their cover of Rammstein’s Du Hast brings very little but a higher tempo to the original. The Acacia Strain take bronze with the totally pedestrian Sensory Deprivation and a cover of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun that strips all the brooding menace and melancholic nuance from it and replaces it with empty growling. So it’s Fit For An Autopsy who steal the show here, mainly because they at least try to nod towards the grandiosity of a band like Gojira on Flatlining, and Nine Inch Nail’s The Perfect Drug actually benefits from being turned into a riffed-up heavy metal song. But, ultimately, this is for hardcore fans and collectors only.
Thy Art Is Murder and the story behind the Depression Sessions EP
Thy Art Is Murder: Unholy Wars
