12 January 2023 – The Tivoli, Brisbane – words – Lucas Bell – pictures – Charlyn Cameron
Announced back in October of 2022, Thy Art is Murder’s “Decade Of Hate Australian Tour” has finally come and gone. And it’s pretty wild to think that their landmark 2012 album, Hate, has turned 10 years old. And to celebrate, Thy Art announced some insane support acts, which truly befit a tribute of this calibre. The main support slot featured Tennessee boys Whitechapel, alongside Utah natives Chelsea Grin, and Bay Area cultists, Spite, both on the opening slot, and also making their Australian debut.
And I tell you what, Spite were the perfect opening band to set the tone for the night. And the crowd was majorly into them. The entire venue was packed in, before Spite could even take to the stage. And for a 4 act show, on a weeknight, that is definitely an impressive feat. In what would be a common thread throughout the night, it was all about the music. None of the bands really spoke at length to the audience at any point, and instead, let the music speak for them. Spite ripped through a current “best of” of songs, including ‘Caved In’, ‘The Root of All Evil’, and ‘Kingdom of Guts’. ‘The Root of All Evil’ was definitely a tune that stood out, because the crowd went absolutely nuts for the chorus. I wasn’t super familiar with these guys walking in, outside of knowing that lead singer Darius Tehrani has joined the deathcore Big Six “boy band”, replacing Attila’s Chris Fronzak. But they were a band that I definitely will be throwing more into the rotation after seeing them live.
Chelsea Grin quickly took to the stage afterwards, and tore down the building with a huge set. Chelsea Grin are a band I’m quite fond of, but know none of the song titles. I just normally throw their stuff on random and thrash away at home. But hearing some songs I’ve come to love, live, truly was an awesome experience. One of the biggest songs of the night was an absolute throwback, in ‘My Damnation’, which had the entire balcony rocking with the massive bassline throughout this tune. I’m actually surprised I didn’t see anyone trying to jump the balcony just to get to crowd surf to that song. This was my first time seeing Chelsea Grin, and it definitely won’t be my last.
As soon as the buzz for Chelsea Grin started to die down, the onslaught that is Whitechapel blasted our ears off. It’s been almost 10 years since Whitechapel last visited Australia, and the wait was definitely worth it. Outside of 2008’s This Is Exile, the entire set was exclusively songs post 2014. The set was also very heavy on songs from their 2019 release, The Valley. My only complaint is that it would have been nice to hear a few more songs off their 2021 record, Kin, which they were touring in support of. Regardless, it was awesome to see these guys ripping up the stage again, and finally being able to see ‘The Saw Is The Law’ live, was as excellent as I could have ever dreamed. As the band took a bow, the crowd chanted LOUD for an encore, but we couldn’t get it. Which was a shame, because the crowd was white hot for these guys.
30 minutes roll by, and you know when it’s time for a Thy Art show, when The Vengaboys ‘We Like to Party’ starts blasting. As the beat dies down, everyone got themselves strapped in for 40+ minutes of Hate. Seeing ‘Reign of Darkness’ open a show, instead of closing it, was such an awesome experience, because Reign has been the band’s set closer pretty much since Hate came out in 2012. So seeing the energy as an opener was huge.
What I didn’t expect was the pure wave of nostalgia that hit me after ‘The Purest Strain of Hate’. I haven’t heard most of these songs live in over 5 years. ‘Shadow of Eternal Sin’, ‘Dead Sun’, and ‘Gates of Misery’ are massive songs live. And it’s very easy to forget, when you haven’t seen them live in so long. As the playthrough of Hate came to a close, massive encore chants rang out across the venue. And we were treated to a triple threat Greatest Hits encore, of ‘Death Squad Anthem’, ‘Holy War’, and ‘Puppet Master’. In all honesty, I don’t think you could have picked a better way to send the crowd home, other than those three songs. A perfect encapsulation of a standard Thy Art show, in three songs.
